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Comment by psychotik | Hacker News Reader

"Well, I am just glad that Android, Windows Phone and Windows 8 store apps don't have this stupid restriction if you don't use their payment systems."

The Android Developer TOS says that any other in-app payment system isn't legal, and grounds for your app being removed from the app store.

I haven't studied it, but I suspect Microsoft's ToS will say something similar too.

Edit: Android's DDA section 3.3 and 4.5 disallow using other payment processors. http://www.android.com/us/developer-distribution-agreement.h...

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The language isn't as restrictive as you're suggesting. Here's the quote from section 3.3: "All fees received by Developers for Products distributed via the Market must be processed by the Market's Payment Processor. "

The key distinction is that this doesn't apply to products not distributed by the Market, like eBooks and mp3 hosted and sold externally (see: Amazon, B&N, Kobo, ...). Hell, you can even buy physical goods via the Amazon Mobile app (and others I'm sure).

Two things:

- Reading the Android ToS, it sounds far less restrictive. 3.3 says that if your apps has a "upgrade to full version" option, it has to be their payments. 4.5 says you can't sell alternative markets. Neither is anywhere as broad as Apple's "anything you sell must be charged as an in-app purchase", which applies to things like Dropbox subscriptions, etc.

- On Android, you can always just distribute your app online to be sideloaded if you don't like the Market. Or distribute in an alternative market like Amazon or GetJar. On iOS, Apple's store is the only way to get on the device.

Do you have a link to or a quote of that section of the TOS? I just looked through it and couldn't find anything like that.

http://www.android.com/us/developer-distribution-agreement.h...

Sections 3.3 and 4.5

Doesn't the Kindle Android app allow you to buy ebooks and subscriptions?

Also,while Microsoft does support in-app purchases in their store, they don't restrict other payment methods like Apple does. From Microsoft's Store guidelines:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsstore/archive/2012/07/20/maki...

Using your own billing system

Your app and service may already depend on a particular transaction provider or benefit from ties to other lines of business. Your customers want the trust and efficiency of a familiar, trusted transaction experience. You can use your own transaction provider within your app to provide the experience your customers expect.

If you are not using the Windows Store as your transaction provider, you will want to make sure that your app meets all of the certification requirements such as: Identifying the transaction provider to the user during purchase confirmation Prompt the user for authentication before processing the transaction Your payment processor must meet the current PCI Data Security Standard

Google's Play Store ecosystem disallows you to use any other provider but the Android in-app billing via ToS. Likewise, Kindle disallows you from using any other in-app payment mechanism besides their custom in-app SDK. FYI, Kindle apps need approval, unlike apps in the Google Play store. So this is no different (in fact worse, because you now have to maintain two code bases and accounting systems).

Good to know about Microsoft - thanks.

Edit: Ah, the Kindle app for Android. I misunderstood. It's possible that Google might deem those violations (see links to the relevant section I posted in parent). Their DOJ mess with eBooks might prevent them from taking such measures though.

I was referring to the Kindle app for Android phones and tablets, not to the apps on Kindle hardware.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_k...

Um, Google doesn't have a DoJ mess with eBooks, Apple does.

The Google Books lawsuit is primarily a dispute with authors and publishers about fair use. The DoJ's involvement in that is tangential (and AFAIK was limited to commenting on and investigating the proposed and now rejected settlement).

When encountering that acronym, I often suspect that an "s" has gone astray.

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