The scanner will find any private APIs in your code before you submit your app to the App Store. The App Scanner provides many other features including-

• Easy Drag n Drop feature.
• Searches over 24,000 method signatures.
• Lists classes that contain private APIs.
• Scans Mach-O Binary files for matches.
• Comes with Sample iOS App.
• Set filter rates to weed out improbable matches

Source- Chimp Studios

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Karsten Weide, program vice president of digital media and entertainment at IDC, San Mateo, CA says“The cut confirms what has been rumored for a while, that Apple’s mobile ad sales have been struggling for a while now that Steve Jobs does not make the calls to prospects himself anymore.”

“Instead, they had junior sales people try to sell ads at the $1 million minimum—and they failed,” he said. “Sales are slow for another reason, too—a lot of advertisers don’t like the lack of cross-platform support for media purchases on Apple iAd. And as Android outsells the iPhones and iPads, pressure on Apple sales will only continue to increase.”

In addition to cut in minimum buy, the Cupertino based company is also aiming to become friendlier to advertisers and agencies. Many advertisers were expecting the minimum iAd commitment to come down as competition in the mobile ad network space is increasing.

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Sam writes “Publishers need an easy way to monetize their content while also retaining information about their readers across multiple platforms. With Apple’s subscription service, publishers lose both these controls and have few options. They can charge consumers more, withdraw from the Apple apps store or continue status quo, knowing they’ll make far less money. This simply doesn’t work in the long run.”

He further adds that “The message is pretty clear from the publisher community, paying 30 percent in fees isn’t a sustainable business model. We believe that  a publishers’ payment model should be determined by them not the platform provider, and it should let them test multiple payment models, over multiple payment platforms until it’s clear what consumers want.”

Joining the debate on open vs. closed web he rights “Our message remains the same, one device or operating system will not win out. Ultimately the consumer is going to choose. History has shown time and again that the open web, where consumers can pay for content they want, in the way they want, across multiple devices, will win out over the walled garden that Apple offers for digital content providers.”

This is not the first time that Apple’s new subscription policy has come under criticism. Many players including iPhone developers and publishers are reportedly unhappy with the new policy terming it an unsustainable business proposition. However, the actual impact of the policy on Apple’s App Store could only be seen in the months to come.

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Hello Steve,

As a full time iOS developer, I am concerned (and confused) withe the new App Store guideline regarding “Apps offering subscriptions” (section 11.12).

Most of the iOS apps I have developed, as a contractor for other businesses, have been free apps that had login screens to allow the user access to some amount of private data and /or service. These businesses have all been well established companies that sell some kind of service to their customers (Software As a Service companies) and the iOS app was merely another “portal” for their users to access their data/services (in many times, in a limited i.e. “mobile” fashion)…. for example; SalesForce. I am concerned that most of these businesses will choose to not develop an iOS app for their customers if the IAP & subscription policy was in place.

Would these types of free apps be still be allowed in the App Store or will they now be expected to use IAP?

To this, Steve Jobs replied:

We created subscriptions for publishing apps, not SaaS apps.

Sent from my iPhone

There is a lot of confusion among iPhone developers and publishers with regard to subscription policies of Apple, especially after the Cupertino Company rejected Readability app. The app was rejected by Apple on the ground that it doesn’t allow in-app purchasing, a mandatory feature for all apps to be listed on Apple App Store. Readability, on the other hand, says that its services fall under SaaS category and hence is unhappy with Apple’s action.

Source- www.macrumors.com

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On Monday, Apple introduced the new subscription rule for apps that required publishers and iPhone developers to offer iOS device users the possibilities of availing subscriptions on digital content services like magazines, newspapers or music with-in the app. Under the new rule, Apple would keep a revenue share of 30 percent. Under the rules, publishers were also barred from offering better deals to customers outside the app.

Many iPhone app developers are unhappy with the new rule with some questioning the economic feasibility of running a subscription service.

Regulatory bodies like Justice Department and FTC have been keeping an eye on Apple’s business policies and the restrictions imposed on app developers, for some time. Both the regulator and Apple declined to comment on the matter.

Source- The New York Times

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The blog post quotes Carlos Rivera, who handles partnerships for Sling Media, as saying “It gives me pause, definitely.” Sling Media offers streaming services wherein people can stream television and movies stored on a set-top box to any mobile device. The company sells a set-top box (price starts at $169 apiece) directly to consumers. Then, they charge customer $30 per device for streaming videos. The company was now planning to enter into a partnership wherein they would subsidize the cost of box and waive the per device fees and would only charge subscription fees from the customers. The company has plans to sell the services through Verizon’s VCast store. It was also thinking of replicating the same at App Store but the recent announcement has put holds on the plan.

The blog post quotes him saying “Is it worth it for us to do something like that? It’s a question of distribution. Without contracts to ensure a customer stays for a certain period of time, it’s a risky move to give up 30 percent every month.”

“This throws everything off,” he added.

The mobile application marketplace is getting very fierce as it is growing and becoming lucrative. Key players in the ecosystem like vendors, carriers and iPhone developers are battling against each other to control the revenue flow from the market.

Source- The New York Times

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Under the new subscription service, publishers of content-based apps such as magazines, newspapers, video, music, etc., will put the price and subscription time (weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, half-yearly or yearly) on the App Store. Interested customers then can pick any subscription period and they will be automatically charged. The new service also allows customers to manage their subscriptions from their personal account page. Apple will keep 30 percent of the revenue from each subscription sold.

“Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing. All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app. We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers.” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.

Publishers who wish to participate in the new subscription service can also employ other methods like selling subscriptions on their website or providing free access to existing customers etc., to get subscribers outside of the app. Publishers can keep all the revenue earned outside the app. However, they have to provide a separate authentication process inside the app for people who subscribe outside of the app. However, Apple’s new subscription policy makes it mandatory for a publisher who chooses to sell a subscription outside of the app to make the same offer available for customers within the app. Moreover, publishers will no longer be able to provide links in their apps to any outside resource which sells subscriptions outside of the app.

Source- www.apple.com

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The post reports that Rep. Edward J. Markey (Mass.), Sens. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.) and Mark Pryor (Ark.) separetly wrote letters to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, asking the agency to investigate games which allow in-app purchases.

Many parents have complained that free apps that are geared toward children can charge as high as $99 for buying virtual items.  These in-app purchases are protected with a password. However, parents say that these safeguards are not strong enough and steep charges for buying imaginary items should not be part of children’s games.

Companies shouldn’t be able to use smurfs and snowflakes and zoos as online ATMs, pulling money from the pockets of unsuspecting parents,” says Markey. “The use of mobile apps will continue to escalate, which is why it is critical that more is done now to examine these practices. I will continue to closely monitor this issue and look forward to the FTC’s response.”

Markey, a veteran member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said “in-app” purchases may be misleading. When a parent downloads an application suitable for young children, they do not expect their children to be faced with purchase options worth of $19 buckets of snowflakes.

FTC conformed that it has received the letters, but declined to comment. Apple was sent a copy of Markey’s letter but declined to comment on the issue.

In-app purchases have been considered as an alternate revenue source for iPhone developers. Many studies have predicted it to become a potent revenue-model for mobile app developers in future. Hence, it would be interesting to see how the FTC investigation goes.

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But there was details about it’s update on AppStore. Update includes the new feature and tweaks with screen shots of app. Surprisingly, the screen shots were old but the details seems to be new under “What’s new Version 3.0″.

This actually gives me the feeling that there was some problem during the item’s update process. Either with the old screen shots and new details or something like that. And it’s probable that they withdrew the App and contacted the developer of it to upgrade the screen shots or related information.

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• No Related Post

Apple says, you should not advertise or disable features in an iPhone or iPodTouch application in order to get people to buy some other app. But that is exactly what Rope’n'Fly did with their lite version app and got away!!

Rope’n'Fly advertises their high scores feature in the lite version app by saying it is not available for “training” mode. That may be a nice mask, may be high scores are not available for training mode even in the full version, but when the lite version app is considered as an app on its own that is “illegal”.

Rope’n'Fly is great and is my current favorite game for the iPhone, but did they do any thing to get the app go through the review process without any hiccups? Some of mine don’t seem to get that privilege!! Infact, one my apps which was approved the first time, was rejected (citing a UI issue, which I never knew was a problem) when I tried to update it.

Wish all developers the best of luck with their application approval process for iPhone!!

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