I am very new to developing apps on the Iphone (In-fact I am new to application development all together). I would like to know what the feasibility for an idea for a app on the iphone is.
1)The application would allow users to download content (audio or if possible video files) onto the device.
2)Each of these files will need to be purchased before downloading, at a fixed price.
3)The user can then play the downloaded files on the device.
Is such an app possible to be made on the Iphone?
If so can anyone give me pointers on how the payment procedure should be, and how revenue will be shared with apple?
From what you described, that sounds very possible.The users would pay you directly through a credit card for the files.
If you are already a registered apple-Developer, have a look at the InAppPurchase(IAP) ProgrammingGuide in the iOS-Devcenter.
The purchase of any content must be handled through IAP.
This is written in the App Store Review Guidelines, Item 11.2 (Because I'm new, I can't provide a link. Sorry for that)
It is not possible that users pay you directly.
Related
I am writing an app for a band. It must be possible to purchase their music from within the app. Here are the options I am considering:
1) Purchase music as an in app purchase. Not very useful because AFAIK the music files cannot be exported to the ipod music library and are only playable within the app. I could kind of get around this by giving the user a URL from which they could then use to download the songs themselves but does apple block this kind of approach - is it seen to compete with the itunes music store?
2) Simply link to an album in the iTunes store. Not ideal as it takes the user out of the app. If I did go this route is it possible for the app to get a confirmation that the purchase went through or at least have the store bring my app to the foreground once finished with the purchase? Alternatively I suppose I could search the iPod library by artist from within my app to determine if they have purchased something by the band.
3) Are there any other options?
Linking to iTunes seems like the best step here, especially for the user, as this allows them to use the tracks across devices, and makes your life much easier when it comes to piracy limitation(links can be shared extremely easily) and also wont piss Apple off.
As for confirmation of purchase, I really have no idea, searching through the library could work I guess, but they may not have downloaded the track yet etc.
2.21 of App Store Review Guidelines states, that apps that simply a song should be submitted to iTunes store.
I want to sell E-books and photos online through in app purchase of appStore. For that I would like to know the following things before proceeding to the in app purchase implementation.
Is it possible to copy the downloaded e-book to another computer?
Normally if we download images or pdf books via inAppPurchase means where these contents will be saved into the device (iPhone,/iPad).
Apple In-App purchase is well suited for your requirement.
Answer 1:
I could not not transfer downloaded to others computer.
Answer 2:
What ever file you download in the application are stored in your application sandbox, So once the application is installed/Removed user will lost all downloaded/stored data.
I want to create an ebook store app which has in app purchase.
All the ebooks will contain images, sounds, text and XML file and will be stored on a web server.
XML file will contain mapping on what sound to play and what text to display on particular page.
1) Being a newbie for in-App Purchase, I would like to know whether I should download all images, sounds, text and XML together or one after another. Or what would be a better mechanism to download all these items?
2) I have read that Apple requires that if a user purchases an item through in-App purchase, all his devices should be able to access that purchased item. How do we ensure that?
Also, if you have experience related to similar project, can you please share the challenges that I might face and possible solution to it.
I really appreciate your advice.
Thank You.
I would compress all the files into one archive and then decompress them on the device. This will speed up the download and will also make your code a little simpler as you'd only need to download one file per ebook.
The StoreKit framework has methods for determining if a user has already purchased an item. If an ebook has already been purchased, then just have the app download it to the device. This is all documented in the StoreKit documentation.
Is there a way to confirm (programmatically) that the application was purchased from AppStore?
Or, maybe, there is a way to get a list of devices IDs from AppStore that purchased my app?
The reason is the willing to determine if the application was legally purchased or not...
I know that there is a way to know that the in-app purchase took place.
Maybe I can check for a paid app purchase too?
The solution may be inside the iPhone app or some check in server side.
The application that I develop is about to get a content from the web server.
Usually (by browsing my client's site) this content is not free and he wants to be sure that users that get the content by using an iPhone app (that I develop) did pay for the app.
Check out these related questions:
Iphone App store - Verifying paid customer
How to programmatically determine if DRM was removed from iPhone application?
Determining if an iPhone is Jail broken Programmatically
My previous Stack Overflow question may help you out: Reducing piracy of iPhone applications
No, but see this related question for information on how to potentially detect that your app has been tampered with in order to allow it to run as a bootleg.
The in-app-purchase-style verification has struck me as a good way to do this, but Apple doesn't currently support it. It might be worth a bug report.
I don't know of anyway of "confirming that the application was purchased from the appStore". I don't think there's any bit that's flipped or "thing" you can check to see.
Sorry.
But if you do learn of such a thing, let me know.
I want to make an app where every single item is unique. I could not find out much information about the Store Kit in iPhone OS 3.0. Do I have to upload all these download-items to the App Store? Or can the download be made from my own server?
Example:
I have 10 items in my app that people can buy. They are highly exclusive, so the one who buys item X, will be the only one who's got that item. after the purchase it's not available anymore.
Do you think it is possible to do that?
I would suggest re-asking this question on the apple developer forums - the 3.0 API is under an NDA and cannot be discussed on a public forum like this.
That said, I would imagine the in-app purchases are held to the same standards as app purchases - each item that you offer for sale must be approved by Apple.
My gut feeling is that the store kit is used to handle the transactions/purchases but you'll have to host your downloads on your own server. OR I suppose another method is to include all files in the app to start with (or in app updates), and that buying stuff merely unlocks that data. I think Burnout Paradise for the 360 does this. That's probably how someone can buy a car to use in game that someone else can see in multiplayer even if they haven't bought it.
I imagine I'll probably create a google app engine site and host my downloads there. That way the game can be more flexible. DLC content wouldn't be dependent on app update approvals.
I'd like to the have the option to host the files in the app store. That would be convenient. :)