iPad本机应用程序中按月订阅的贝宝付款

Question

I am working on an enterprise app which allows users to perform CRUD operations on data under their profiles, sync it with a backend, share it with other users and view it across multiple platforms.

The app works on 3 platforms

a) as a webapp in browser b) as a native iOS app on iPad c) as a native android app on android tablets

Now we want to give the app for free for a trial period of 3 months after which we want to charge our users a monthly subscription fee if they want to continue syncing their data with backend. If not, they can use the app as a native app which doesn't have a backend and they won't be able to share their data across platforms and with other users but will be able to use the app as a native app with no backend.

For the monthly subscription fee, we wanted to integrate Paypal payments into our ipad app.

There are 2 gray areas which is causing us confusion

a) Apple might reject the app due to paypal integration as it favours in-app purchases/itunes.

b) Apple states that users can be charged only for "real world service". Does our kind of service qualify?

We prefer getting some definitive information rather than implementing paypal payments and getting rejected by apple which will set us back by 14 days. Any help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

I don't think you'll get "definite" information here, since stackoverflow does not have internal information on Apple's strategies. You have to try and find out. I know Apps with monthly subscriptions that use in-app purchases (like Trillian ).

If you want to make sure it won't get rejected, exclude the payment process from the app. You are using accounts and some accounts get paid "premium" functionality. Just let the users pay through your website or redirect them to your website if they want to buy from iPad. My guess would be that Apple will otherwise want you to use in-app purchases for the subscription.

About the "real world service", that should be no problem.