How to determine if iOS version supports auto-renewing purchases?

Question

Am I being particular dense today? I'm working on an app that needs to offer legacy subscriptions to old iOS versions and auto-renewing subscriptions to newer iOS versions.

Normally I would check using a respondsToSelector test for something appropriate in the classes I want to use, but I can't see anything in the storekit that has changed that would allow me to do the test.

So how should I check to see if the device supports auto-renewing subs? I know I could check the explicit iOS version number, but I'd really prefer not to do that.

Is there a more sensible check I can do?

Answer 1

Why not just check for the iOS version that you need? How hard is that?

Answer 2

Hey Roger I was in a local meetup group for iOS developers and the topic of auto-renewing of subscriptions came up.

1 It is meant for "Magazines", which I would assume works only with Newsstand Apps

2 and it is ONLY meant for "Established" publications.

Which implies a printed version, and not just any ole' publication. This must be a nationally syndicated thing, something you would find on every major news stand in the country.

From what I gather in the conversation, Apple does not mean for the auto-renewal feature to open any new monetization channels for app developers (not yet at least), but rather the feature was created to extend the existing business model of print publications to the iPhone iPad digital media. Perhaps sometime in the future, this feature will be extended to all apps in the app store. Here's hoping.