I am working on an iOS project where the customer wants to sell hardcopy books in the application. I did this application using PayPal, but I don't think Apple will approve the PayPal user and the book will delivered to buyers by address. How can handle this? I want also to sell ebooks and I don't know how to handle that.
Thanks!
You should read the developer guidelines very carefully, but there doesn't seem to be any restriction against creating apps that sell physical goods. You can't use In-app Purchasing for that, but it doesn't sound like you want to anyway:
https://developer.apple.com/appstore/guidelines.html
Related
I'm making a utility application for a photographer. He is going to (obviously) be taking pictures, but wants to charge people at an event for a handful of digital images emailed or shared on social media. In this situation i would have to use Paypal or Square SDKs and not in app purchasing because he is going to compose the transaction and not the customer buying the pictures. Sort of like a mini POS system. He can't pay himself with another's credentials - so it would have to be a 3rd party solution. right? Is this against Apple's guidelines?
Am I over thinking this?
If the intent is to support in-person / face to face (swipe) credit card or keyed in credit card payments, check out the PayPal Here SDKs for iOS and Android which are now available on the PayPal Developer site:
https://developer.paypal.com/webapps/developer/docs/integration/mobile/pph-sdk-overview/
There is also a version for Windows 8.1+ in Beta, available upon request. You can email DL-PayPal-Here-SDK#ebay.com for help with any of these.
I am making a game for windows 8 and I am going to have ads in it. I want to offer to remove ads as an in-app purchase but according to the microsoft guides the app has to have been sold to be able to handle in-app purchases. Are there any ways to allow in-app purchases without selling the app? I want it to be free, not sold or trialed.
Yes you can do this. I dont know where you've seen you cant. I do this in two of my apps (Peregrine and "Map Wallpaper")
I have a Windows Store app for a newspaper in the Windows Store. Each issue (one per work day) can be bought using in-app purchases. In Windows Store, it looks like i can define only 100 in app purchases. In my case, that is about 4 months of daily issues.
Is 100 really the limit? Has anyone found a way to add more?
I cannot find a way to add more in-app purchases to the app. The milit of 100 would be a really stupid constraint and I would need to remove to ability to buy old issues in order to add new issues.
Windows 8 doesn't support subscription-based purchases but it does support time-limited purchases.
One option is to let the user purchase "credits" that can be applied toward an issue. Similar to how Audible lets you purchase audiobooks with credits.
Here's the thing though. Newspapers make money off advertisements. The purchase price isn't for the content, it's for the materials that it costs to deliver the paper. A digital paper costs nothing to deliver so why are you charging for it?
The store does not support subscriptions. However you can just use a third party provider for this.
As mentioned in the 'Flexible business Model'
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/hh852650.aspx
The Windows Store provides you with the freedom to choose the business
model that’s right for your apps. The Store provides full platform
support for free apps, trials (both time-based and feature-based), and
paid apps, as well as in-app purchases. You’re free to manage customer
transactions directly using your own or third-party services for
in-app purchases and subscriptions, or use the services provided by
the Windows Store. For apps that are supported by ads, you’re free to
choose the ad platform that best meets your goals.
Paypal is accessible via this api:
http://paypal.github.com/Windows8SDK/
or directly via a form post
How to Form POST to Paypal from WinJS iframe Windows 8 App?
We are about to develop new mobile application that requires the end user to fill his payment information, which will be redirected to a third party’s portal to pay for a certain services through the application ( using Web Services )
user send billing information using web services , Is this legal for apple ?
It's OK to integrate 3rd party credit card payment systems in your app (for example PayPal, Amazon payments, etc. or your own system) as long as you do not sell services, extensions, etc. to your app. As you say you're going to sell physical goods, it is OK for Apple. Amazon app does the same thing. Btw it is even explicitly prohibited to use in-app payments to sell physical goods.
EDIT: more answer to the detailed questions in the comment
IMHO (see disclaimer):
Shipping fees of physical goods and signup fees for your physical service are NOT services or extensions - in the sense that Apple uses it, it applies only to some additional features to your application, for example a new level in a game or a new map in a mapping app
to be legally store, transmit, process credit card information, you will have to be compliant to the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. Here Apple has nothing to do, but both Visa and Mastercard (and maybe also other card issuers) require that you implement these practices if you wish to process credit card data of their cards
this last requirement might be tricky so I really suggest you to look for some ready solution instead of implementing your own. See also the first answer to this question: Use In App Purchase For Real Goods
DISCLAIMER: I am not a legal authority or somebody from Apple so I can give you just hints but not a legal advice - will have to ask a lawyer for an "official" answer :)
After publishing an app on iTunes you get 50 promo codes to hand out to users. This usually runs out pretty quickly. We thought we may be able to circumvent this by gifting the app to certain users using a US iTunes gift card. Does anyone know if this is against the App Store policy in any way? I read through the terms and conditions and didn't see anything about it.
Thanks
Apple will get their 30% cut, so there should be no problem with that idea.
I think you're confusing gift cards and promo codes.
Gift cards are paid in advance using real money, so Apple gets 30% of the gift card value up front.
Apps bought using gift cards can receive customer reviews.
Promo codes are totally free, nobody earns anything.
Apps received using promo codes can not receive customer reviews.
You can't give away iTunes Gift Cards to promote your App. I wanted to do this on Twitter and Facebook to interact with the users, so I decided to contact Apple to make it all clear. Here is the reply:
Thanks for reaching out.
Unfortunately, iTunes Gift Cards, iTunes Codes or Apple product cannot be given out in conjunction with app promotions. That said, you’ll need to find an alternate incentive/gift for the program.
Best regards,
Promo Review
You can contact Apple on on this email: promoreview#apple.com