Following a ruling on April thirtieth by the Epic Video games v. Apple choose Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, Apple can now not accumulate a 27 p.c fee on purchases made exterior of apps or prohibit how builders can direct customers to alternate fee choices. Apple has appealed the choice, however can be complying with it within the interim, prompting a number of corporations to announce app updates making it simpler for customers to pay for subscriptions and providers. That now consists of Amazon’s iOS Kindle app. Opposite to prior limitations, there may be now a outstanding orange “Get guide” button on Kindle app’s guide listings.
“We commonly make enhancements to our apps to assist guarantee we’re offering prospects probably the most handy expertise doable,” Amazon spokesperson Tim Gillman informed The Verge over e-mail. “By choosing ‘Get E book’ inside the Kindle for iOS app, prospects can now full their buy via their cellular internet browser.”
Amazon wasn’t the primary firm to launch a devoted studying gadget with an E Ink display. Firms like Sony beat them to the punch by a few years. What helped make the Kindle in style, and arguably destined to dominate the e-reader market, was that you can purchase books proper on the gadget, even in case you didn’t have Wi-Fi entry due to Amazon’s now discontinued mobile Whispernet service.
Earlier than at this time’s updates, shopping for books wasn’t a characteristic you’d discover within the Kindle cellular app following app retailer rule modifications Apple applied in 2011 that required builders to take away hyperlinks or buttons resulting in alternate methods to make purchases. You can seek for books that supplied samples for obtain, add them to a procuring record, and browse titles you already personal, however you couldn’t really purchase titles via the Kindle or Amazon app, and even see their costs.
To keep away from having to pay Apple’s 30 p.c reduce of in-app purchases, and the 27 p.c tax on various fee strategies Apple launched in January 2024, Amazon beforehand required you to go to and login to its on-line retailer via a tool’s internet browser to buy ebooks in your iPhone or iPad, which have been then synchronized to the app. It was a cumbersome course of in comparison with the streamlined expertise of shopping for ebooks straight on a Kindle e-reader.
Amazon most likely isn’t going to vary its thoughts about avoiding Apple’s 30 p.c reduce on e-book gross sales, however the replace to the Kindle app now makes it a lot simpler to buy ebooks in your iPhone for these occasions when your Kindle e-reader doesn’t have a dependable Wi-Fi connection.
Nonetheless, there’s nonetheless the possibility Apple might win its attraction, forcing Amazon to undo these updates and enhancements and as soon as once more make shopping for ebooks on iPhones overcomplicated and inconvenient.
