Amazon Sidesteps App Store Business Model, Plays Back MP3s From Safari

Press2ToContinue writes "Amazon has found a simple way around Apple's tight-fisted App Store rules: give users a web app to buy MP3s that runs in Safari. This way, they have no need to pay 30% per tune to Apple. Freedom of choice of vendor in Apple-only territory? Is this a big breach of Apple's walled garden? I wonder if Apple with have a response to this."

Re:There will be no response

[Psyborgue]

Because they know what a hassle it is to do everything through your browser, especially on a mobile connection. How long do you think battery life is going to be for your average user streaming mp3s over 3g? They cannot download them or otherwise usefully cache them locally, unlike Google Music for Android, so I'm not sure how many people are going to be willing to use this despite the massive disadvantages.

Re:There will be no response

[MightyYar]

I don't think they have to stream the MP3s - they could be using Safari's persistent storage [apple.com].

In any case, on my Android phone I use Subsonic and get decent battery life. Subsonic streams music from your home server, but in practice it spends a few seconds downloading each song and the data connection sleeps for most of the time you are listening. I also use Pandora and find it to be acceptable.

Re:The iPhone was designed for web apps.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hahaha.. Apple has been removing and crippling features in mobile Safari to prevent this with each release.

The next version will probably drop mp3 support.

Re:The iPhone was designed for web apps.

[mevets]

Did you notice who the submitter was?
It would be notable if it was not stupid.

Speculative idiocy about Apple never stops

[DavidinAla]

The rules for iOS are very simple. If you want to sell apps through the App Store — or sell anything inside those apps — you give Apple a 30 percent cut. If you want to sell through the web browser, you're own your own. The idea that Apple has any interest in controlling what are essentially web pages is sheer idiocy. There's absolutely no evidence to cause a rational person to even ask the question. It's only insane hatred of Apple and the desire to attack the company that could be behind such a question, because there is no rational reason to even bring it up. If you want to sell something through what is essentially a webpage that has a link on your screen, Apple has never shown the least bit of interest in stopping you. It's sheer delusion to suggest otherwise.

Re:Speculative idiocy about Apple never stops

[Doctor_Jest]

Or, you simply installed Linux and moved on from the idea that you have to pay for something to get quality software....

I've said this before...

[Roogna]

Apple's %30 is less about making money from what I've seen (This is also substantiated by SEC reports) and more about customer support management. Remember, those of us here on /. are perfectly capable of knowing that when we buy app from Vendor B, and it's billing breaks, that it's not Apple's fault, but Vendor B's. For most consumers that is simply not the case though, they buy the wrong thing from Vendor B and the charge gets messed up? They're not even going to look up that company's phone number, they're going to call Apple and complain about the charge. Who can't do anything because it didn't even run through their system. A whole lot of people -still- don't realize that their ISP isn't the whole Internet, that their Dell isn't every computer, and that their iPhone and everything on it wasn't produced by Apple.

So we get this, where every charge runs through their system.

On the flip side, people who do their subscriptions through web apps should damn well know where they went to buy, since they had to literally type in the company's name in some fashion (Google search, the URL bar, SOMETHING) to reach the checkout cart.

Re:No Breach

[vakuona]

Not only that. 7digital has an app that allows you to download all the songs that have been bought on their website, and so you can actually have them on the phone all the time, as opposed to streaming them.

Much ado about nothing!