In App Purchasing - Avoiding it

[Jamie Cashin]

I have an idea for an app that unfortunately has the need for the user to be able to pay for a service. My understanding is that if I do this, Apple will get a 30% cut. Is there some way around this that anyone is aware of?

Jamie

[Philippe Casgrain]

Not on iOS. Any transaction has to be done through Apple. Witness the Dropbox "rejections" because you could get to a web page that could allow you to subscribe for the service and upgrade for pay.

You can't even mention it in your documentation, even though users can use Mobile Safari to get the service…

Envoyé de mon iPad

Le 2012-05-30 à 19:06, Jamie Cashin <jkca...@jamiecashin.com> a écrit :

> I have an idea for an app that unfortunately has the need for the user to be able to pay for a service. My understanding is that if I do this, Apple will get a 30% cut. Is there some way around this that anyone is aware of?
>
> Jamie
>

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[Jamie Cashin]

That's what I thought. Sitting here with client now and broke the news to him. We're not happy. Need to find another way.

Jamie

[Greg Robertson]

Do the service through Apple the have both one off and subscription services.

Apple will handle all the fee collection so it might be a good choice anyway?

Greg

Sent from my iPhone

[Gavin McKenzie]

To be clear, you can distribute an app that will only work with a paid service. You just cannot provide a mechanism for selling to that user through the app without giving Apple a cut.

Best regards,

Gavin McKenzie
mobile: 613.884.3367

[Christopher Saunders]

There's a few examples of what Gavin is talking about.  I noticed while using the Kindle App on iPad I couldn't actually look for new books on the Kindle store, just look at what I've purchased.  This works for Amazon because they already had the billing infrastructure in place, your situation may be different.

If you'd have to build out the whole billing part, it may make sense to have the app store do all your transactions for you.  Won't have to deal with setting up a merchant account (which from what I've seen can have some pretty high costs), or going through something like PayPal.

Christopher Saunders
http://christophersaunders.ca/

[Jamie Cashin]

The problem is my client wants to pick up the payment up front, prior to the customer receiving the item. I have explained to the client that this means he will be giving up 30% and he says he's willing to give up 5%, but I told him it's not negotiable. It's a fee Apple sets. Brilliant for Apple. Bad for me.

Having the customer pay when they arrive to pick up the product is what I suggested, but he does not like that idea because his app is acting as an intermediary, putting the customer and service provider together, and gets paid a cut. By collecting the cut up front from the customer, he ensures he will get his cut. By putting the onus on the service provider t pay him back, he feels he is losing control. 

I am at a loss as how to proceed.

Is Android like this too?

Jamie

[stevex]

It sounds like your client is selling a physical item that the
customer will pick up, through the app?

This isn't something that Apple participates in - you can't use an in-
app purchase for any non-virtual good, but that said, you are free to
use the app to sell products and use your own payment mechanism in
this case. The eBay app, for example, lets you bid on and buy eBay
items and Apple doesn't get a cut of that.

On May 30, 11:50 pm, Jamie Cashin <jkcas...@jamiecashin.com> wrote:
> The problem is my client wants to pick up the payment up front, prior to the customer receiving the item. I have explained to the client that this means he will be giving up 30% and he says he's willing to give up 5%, but I told him it's not negotiable. It's a fee Apple sets. Brilliant for Apple. Bad for me.
>
> Having the customer pay when they arrive to pick up the product is what I suggested, but he does not like that idea because his app is acting as an intermediary, putting the customer and service provider together, and gets paid a cut. By collecting the cut up front from the customer, he ensures he will get his cut. By putting the onus on the service provider t pay him back, he feels he is losing control.
>
> I am at a loss as how to proceed.
>
> Is Android like this too?
>
> Jamie
>
> On 2012-05-30, at 20:13 , Christopher Saunders wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > There's a few examples of what Gavin is talking about.  I noticed while using the Kindle App on iPad I couldn't actually look for new books on the Kindle store, just look at what I've purchased.  This works for Amazon because they already had the billing infrastructure in place, your situation may be different.
>
> > If you'd have to build out the whole billing part, it may make sense to have the app store do all your transactions for you.  Won't have to deal with setting up a merchant account (which from what I've seen can have some pretty high costs), or going through something like PayPal.
>

> > On Wed, May 30, 2012 at 7:34 PM, Gavin McKenzie <gavin.mcken...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > To be clear, you can distribute an app that will only work with a paid service. You just cannot provide a mechanism for selling to that user through the app without giving Apple a cut.
>
> > Best regards,
>
> > Gavin McKenzie
> > mobile: 613.884.3367
>

> > On May 30, 2012, at 19:27, Jamie Cashin <jkcas...@jamiecashin.com> wrote:
>
> > > That's what I thought. Sitting here with client now and broke the news to him. We're not happy. Need to find another way.
>
> > > Jamie
>
> > > On 2012-05-30, at 19:11 , Philippe Casgrain wrote:
>
> > >> Not on iOS. Any transaction has to be done through Apple. Witness the Dropbox "rejections" because you could get to a web page that could allow you to subscribe for the service and upgrade for pay.
>
> > >> You can't even mention it in your documentation, even though users can use Mobile Safari to get the service…
>
> > >> Envoyé de mon iPad
>

> > >> Le 2012-05-30 à 19:06, Jamie Cashin <jkcas...@jamiecashin.com> a écrit :
>
> > >>> I have an idea for an app that unfortunately has the need for the user to be able to pay for a service. My understanding is that if I do this, Apple will get a 30% cut. Is there some way around this that anyone is aware of?
>
> > >>> Jamie
>
> > >>> --
> > >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "OCocoa" group.
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> > >>> For more options, visit this group athttp://groups.google.com/group/ococoa?hl=en.

>
> > >> --
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>
> > > --
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>
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[Dan Byers]

Jamie, does your client already have an existing web service that's already live and already handles ordering and payments?

Sent from my iPhone

[Jamie Cashin]

On 2012-05-31, at 06:31 , stevex wrote:

> It sounds like your client is selling a physical item that the
> customer will pick up, through the app?

The customer finds out about the physical item by way of the app, and if they buy it in app, they get a discount. The company my friend works for gets a cut of the take and issues a check to the vendor. The customer shows up at the vendors and collects their physical product.

>
> This isn't something that Apple participates in - you can't use an in-
> app purchase for any non-virtual good, but that said, you are free to
> use the app to sell products and use your own payment mechanism in
> this case. The eBay app, for example, lets you bid on and buy eBay
> items and Apple doesn't get a cut of that.
>

Oh really? That sounds like it fits my model!

Jamie

[Jamie Cashin]

On 2012-05-31, at 06:46 , Dan Byers wrote:

>
> Jamie, does your client already have an existing web service that's already live and already handles ordering and payments?

Yes. I was thinking of using that as a payment backend... would Apple allow that? I thought that would qualify as an "in-app" purchase.

Jamie

[Jean-Pierre Simard]

In-app purchases only apply to digital content that must be consumed on the iDevice purchasing it.

JP

Jamie

[Greg Robertson]

Checkout MagicPlan, maybe that's a similar purchasing model? Free App but pay for outputting plans.

Greg

Sent from my iPhone