[alexhaefner]

I agree with your assertions, and I'd like to bring a bit of rationale to this discussion rather than the "How can Apple be allowed to do this?" and other flamboyant language.

This is on Dropbox to fix, not Apple.

Imagine you provide a marketplace, and you curate that marketplace. And you say to customers who come to that marketplace "Don't worry, we're going to do everything we can to protect you from bad purchases". Then you say to sellers, "No deals behind closed doors. You want access to the marketplace? Sell out in public." Every time you use the iOS in app purchase API, Apple has a way to track the payment. Lets say the customer pays for a service inside of an app that never gets rendered. The customer can then contact Apple who can verify if the payment was processed, and can go about returning the customer's money while policing the marketplace. But if the purchase for a service rendered inside the app happens outside the app, then customers will have a much more difficult time getting recourse for making payments to a service provider (app maker) whose app doesn't work properly or doesn't provide the services that the user payed for.

Having said all that, Dropbox provided this API to developers. They should have built it to work inside these rules. They could let users create Dropbox accounts, they just would not be allowed to charge users from outside of an app for services that would then be rendered inside the app. It sucks, I know, but it's an important part of ensuring the quality of Apple's marketplace.

[thought_alarm]

I fully appreciate and support Apple's efforts to protect the App Store from all potential abuses, but I'm not selling anything outside of the App Store, nor am I directing anyone to purchase something outside of the App Store.

Users who are directed to Dropbox via my app are not asked to purchase anything. They are not made aware that there is anything to purchase. They are only told that "Dropbox is a free service that lets you transfer files". They create an account and it just works, and they never have to think about Dropbox or their Dropbox account again.

[stickfigure]

This is on us to fix - we, the consumers. The way to tell Apple that this behavior is unacceptable is to stop giving them money.

[jopt]

By extension, since Apple is still in business, their behaviour is de facto accepted and thereby necessarily acceptable.

[ChrisLTD]

Dropbox accounts are free to start, and you don't have to give them your credit card.