iOS App Distribution for closed usergroup

Question

We are an university department for further education courses and we are planning to publish our cd based courses as an additional iOS/Android App. As we have almost finished the development process we are now facing some questions regarding the distribution. The basic idea is to publish the app in a lite version for free (including chapter one of the course). After you have completed this chapter you will be asked to enter your login data. Our students will be able to enter thier data to activate (download missing content from our server) the app. If you are not an enrolled student there will be a link to our course page. On this page you can enroll for the courses and of course there is a charge for this.

But Apple only allows purchases via the App Store or as so called "in app buys". Will we violate this rule with our idea?

I have found some newspaper apps with basically the same concept: download for free. If you have a print subscription for this newspaper you enter your data and can use the app. If not you can subscribe for the online offer via an in app buy.

After days of research we have no clear answer to this scenario.

Any comment appreciated.

Answer 1

There are two possible solution for your situation:

Without In-App Purchase: You can create an app which can have a eBook (in your case, dummy eBook with chapter 1 content) bundled with the App. By doing this anyone who can download will have access to the dummy eBook as well.

For downloading of additional-contents user can do login and access the eBooks available with their account. Kindly note as you are not using In-App purchase there shall be no links for user registration, buy inside your app. All these you can handle at your web-site. Your app can check for valid user credential using a web-service call, and user can see the contents available for download.

Advantages: 1) You shall not be paying 30 % to Apple as No-purchases are done using your app. 2) This is total compliance with Apple guidelines, this link and part 11 specially will be of interest. Disadvantage: Users cannot directly buy/register via app and you need to maintain additional services for user login validation/content mapping/download content etc.

Using in-App Purchase: You can use Apple provided in-App purchase for selling content/ registration of users etc. Please note Apple shall charge 30 % on your selling price.

Advantages: Users can register and buy directly using your app. In-App purchase guidelines will help more in this. Disadvantage: Apple will charge 30% on Selling price.

Answer 2

Given what you are trying to do, there really is no clear answer for your question that this community can provide, I'm afraid.

The true answer is entirely up to Apple's current app review policies. You should probably submit the app, explain clearly what you are doing, and if it gets rejected/denied, you can follow up with an appeal to the app review board.

As far as I know, physical items that are purchased are not subject to Apple's 30% cut. However, since you're offering courses / content over the 'net, Apple may want some percentage (between 0 & 30%) of the the profits you're making. Maybe they have a different arrangement with newspaper publishers. Ultimately, you'd need to submit the app and find out what the reviewers and app review board say.