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Comment by sethg | Hacker News Reader

Apple is trying to prevent the following maneuver:

¶ FooPub Inc. publishes FooMag through the App Store, at a price of $1/year.

¶ Each issue of FooMag contains some small amount of content and a link: “To read more, go to foopub.example.com and subscribe to FooMag Deluxe for $20/year!”

¶ Users download FooMag Deluxe through FooPub’s own servers, bypassing the App Store completely.

¶ Scads of people discover FooMag through the App Store, subscribe to it (giving Apple 30¢ out of each $1 subscription), and a significant fraction of them upgrade to the deluxe version (giving Apple nothing).

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Is discovery via the App Store really that common? As a previous iPhone user and current Android user I don't think I ever discovered a single app for either platform via the App Store itself.

I always went looking for something on the App Store (or now on the Android Market) after hearing of it elsewhere. I suppose I may be in the minority there and I can't say for sure I'm not, but I'd be pretty surprised if I were.

If an app publisher wants to avoid all the App-Store-related restrictions, can they just put their app on the Web and let people download and install it through the browser? I don’t have any iStuff so I don’t know the practicalities.

No, they can't do that. On iOS it is the App Store or nothing when it comes to native apps. (Of course, if users jailbreak their phones they have more freedom to install apps, but I assume we're just talking about the standard OS here).

On Android the publisher can bypass the store by distributing their own APK files. Some carriers (glancing towards AT&T) lock this down in some phones, but by default Android is happy to install new apps from anywhere as long as the user agrees to a dialog warning them of the dangers of running random code they download from the net.

This is one of many reasons I'm currently an Android user and self-described "Apple hater".

If Apple puts you on the new and noteworthy or featured lists, app sales go way up. I think it is safe to say that a lot of app sales are driven by discovery on the store itself. As to if it is the majority of sales, well, I have no way of knowing. :)

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