Barn Door Left Open? Shoot the Horses

John Gruber:

Something’s got to give here. I don’t know what, but there must be more news on this front coming soon. I don’t believe Apple wants to chase competing e-book platforms off the App Store.

I don’t have the faith in Apple that he does in this case - to me, the whole ebook situation on iOS probably looks like a mistake to Apple. Look at the music market on their devices. Nobody else but Apple can sell music to iPod users¹. Same with videos and apps. Somehow, Apple let Amazon and Barnes and Noble sell ebooks on their device before Apple could come through with its own store, and now it’s the only digital media sales platform that Apple has real competition on.

In each prior case, Apple prevented competing platforms from offering their products on their devices in the first place. In this particular case, they forgot to do so, and I get the feeling they want to correct their mistake. This new subscription rule’s the only way they have to do so without blatantly kicking the apps out of the store.

It wouldn’t be very good for users, though, and that’s the strongest argument against this theory. However, I would bet a Kindle application that had no on-device purchase ability would still fly through the rules… maybe that’s what Apple is trying to bring about.