[jeff_tyrrill]

The rules are complex but the principle is simple.

Apps are required to use in-app purchase if:

(1) The customer relationship originated in the app; and

(2) The primary nexus of the purchased item is to improve the purchaser's personal in-app experience.

Rules get complex around edge cases even when the principles are simple. Sometimes Apple makes the wrong call on those edge cases based on those principles (Hey, WordPress, in-app fitness training calls), and today's rule changes feel like Apple's acknowledgement of that.

Apple has also signaled that they don't feel the simple principles need any adjustment.

[XCSme]

> The customer relationship originated in the app

Why does that matter if the one who brought the customer to download the app in the first place it was you, through your own promotion, and not Apple? Apple should take their cut only if they promoted the app to the user that would have not installed it otherwise.

[stickfigure]

I think the actual principle at play is: Apple will charge what the market will bear. If Apple could successfully collect 80% of every transaction in the world, it would. Why not? Apple is not your priest, it's just a corporation trying to extract maximum value from its assets.