Will Amazon Take Kindle from iPhone and iPad?

There has been a change in the enforcement of Apple’s applications policy. This could force Amazon to remove the popular Kindle application from the iPhone and iPad “App Store”.

An attempt by Apple is being made to direct all payments for digital goods, through its iTune store. This will prevent companies such as Amazon, from collecting sales by way of its own channels and not giving Apple a percentage.

At present, Kindle customers can buy a book on the web and then forward it to their iPhones or iPads. They are not able to buy the book from within the applications facility. This is going to change as Apple is going to force Amazon to give their customers an option to buy the book in the Kindle application.

Indications are that if an application offers customers the facility to buy books outside the applications, the same option will be available to users from within the “app” with “in-app” purchase.

A question asked is how is this going to effect the Kindle application? Apple takes 30% from every “in-app” sale. It is difficult to see Amazon paying Apple a 30% tax, on every e-Book sold on an iOS device. This could create a situation where Amazon instead of paying, will simply abandon the Apple store.

An alternative is that the 30% tax is seen as a business cost and is accepted by them. Another option for them would be to make the “in-app” purchasing button very small and the one for on-web purchasing from Amazon, very, very large!

The “in-app purchasing controversy erupted, when it was revealed by Sony, that Apple had rejected its e-reader application. According to Sony, the “app” was rejected because it did not provide for the “in-app” payment option. If Amazon follows this line, it also could be rejected.