I have an app that I would like companies to buy licences for. Say they have 5 devices so would by 5 subscriptions?
is this possible with IAP?
Is there a way of stopping them just having a single shared iCloud account and buying a single licence which is re-used across devices?
Has anyone need to do this before?
Thanks
Unfortunately no, there is no way to do that on iOS. The app would be rejected, with or without In-App Purchase.
11.6 Content subscriptions using IAP must [...] be available to the user from all of their iOS devices
11.2 Apps utilizing a system other than the In-App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an App will be rejected
Ref:
https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#purchasing-currencies
Just so you know:
There are ways for large companies to buy app licences by volume (through VPP and MDM). But you would have no involvement in this matter, and you app still needs to be available on the AppStore.
Related
We have a full fledged website that has a checkout mechanism it,using which users can buy items,we decided to make an iOS app that will simply open the home page of the website under the UI web view of iOS.
I just wanted to ask is it acceptable by Apple as we are not using in app purchases?
No, your app will most likely be rejected.
From the App Store Review Guidelines:
2.12 Apps that are not very useful, unique, are simply web sites bundled as Apps, or do not provide any lasting entertainment value may
be rejected
If you are selling physical goods or services that are not consumed within the app you cannot use in-app purchase.
YES it is possible but I would strongly recommend you not to Use it.
This is apple Guideline for uploaded apps
11.2 Apps utilizing a system other than the In App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an app will be rejected
I've read this guidelines:
https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#purchasing-currencies
And seems in point 11.3 "Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside of the App will be rejected", so, it applies with an app that sells tickets for entries in a music local?
11.2 Apps utilizing a system other than the In-App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an App will be rejected
11.3 Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside of the App will be rejected
From what I understand. You can use an alternative to IAP. With which you :
Can't sell content, functionality, or services for the app itself ;
Can sell physical goods or goods and services for outside the app.
Edit :
You might want to look this Q/A too : If I use the PayPal gateway in my iPhone app, will Apple approve it?
It looks like a duplicate of MPL library integration in iOS. Will it contradict APPLE in app purchase or any other payment rule?
Although if you get the ticket on the device itself, it could be considered a digital good.
I have an app with In-App purchase to unlock full version. Is it possible to offer a free In-App purchase upgrade for select users?
This would depend on what you are trying to do. For instance for marketing purposes Apple grants you 100 promo codes you can give to people for free.
You can read about it in the iTunes Connect documentation:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/LanguagesUtilities/Conceptual/iTunesConnect_Guide/Chapters/ProvidingPromoCodes.html
Let's say I sell video-tutorials using a credit system and I want the service to be available as a website, an Android app and a iOS app.
So users may buy/consume credits and use credits to purchase video-tutorials from one of those 3 sources.
From Apple guidelines I read:
11.1 Apps that unlock or enable additional features or functionality with mechanisms other than the App Store will be rejected
11.2 Apps utilizing a system other than the In-App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an App will be
rejected
11.3 Apps using IAP to purchase physical goods or goods and services used outside of the App will be rejected
11.4 Apps that use IAP to purchase credits or other currencies must consume those credits within the App
11.5 Apps that use IAP to purchase credits or other currencies that expire will be rejected
Is it totally prohibited to use a credit system shared among many access points (as website, android, ios, windows and so on..) or it can be done just avoiding IAP (Apple in App purchase) and using for example PayPal mobile SDK?
It seems very strange to me that apps with this functionality cannot be published.
The only points in apple guidelines referring to credits (or virtual currencies are) 11.4 and 11.5 which make me think you can actually make an app that does not use IAP to purchase credits.
And if you can make an app that does not use IAP to purchase credits you don't have to respect point 11.4 so you can actually consume those credits outside the app itself.
BUT: given that you can sell credits without using IAP and so consume them even outside the app, using them to buy content will break points 11.1 and 11.2 ?
Thank you very much
I am not 100% sure about this, but based on other apps i have seen and the reason why other apps have been taken down i can think the following.
If your app uses the apple app purchase, then its fine.
If your app uses credits that came from another place, its also fine.
However, these credits SHOULD ONLY be purchasable using the in app purchase when the user access your service through the app. This means, you shouldn't offer any other "way of purchasing" credits while the user is using your app.
As an example i remember a very famous app, which i don't remember which was it, had to be taken down because it showed a link that would let users access the desktop purchase system, directly from the app.
There is also other examples. There are a ton of dating applications that use this system, if you go to their websites you can purchase credit, or you can directly purchase them within the app using the in app store method, the credits are the same for the service, just the way of buying them changes.
Another example is the game hearthstone, you can buy decks in game, but you can also buy them from their website, its not the same as credits, but the main point is the same.
Basically, what i think it means is, money related operations should go through apple if the service is being accessed by your app regardless of anything else.
You might want to wait for someone who has had more experience in this, I am just telling you what i have noticed.
Can we use in- App purchase in an iOS App distributed as a enterprise app? If not possible can we use paypal or any other purchasing mechanism for that?Does Apple create any problem here as they did for Kindle App using payment other than their one?
Since the Enterprise license doesn't cover App Store integration, your bundle ID isn't registered and approved with Apple, this alone means the StoreKit can't approve any transactions because it's not aware of your application.
Even if this wasn't true, the infrastructure behind StoreKit isn't in place for Enterprise apps.
In any case you could argue that in-app purchase in an Enterprise application doesn't really make sense since you would be providing this application to employees, not customers.
If you're not going to publish the application in the AppStore, you can use any purchasing mechanism that you want.
This link shows all the types of accounts and what capabilities each of them allows: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/IDEs/Conceptual/AppDistributionGuide/SupportedCapabilities/SupportedCapabilities.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40012582-CH38-SW1
Apple Enterprise apps do not support In App Purchase, but they support a lot of other stuff