Apple new subscription rules now upsetting developers, too

While some publishers have bemoaned Apple's new rules regarding subscription based content, certain developers are starting to feel the pinch as well. Arc90, developer of the Readability Web service, has taken Apple to task for rejecting Readability's native iOS client on the grounds that it doesn't abide by the new subscription rules. Keyone Productions, maker of TinyGrab, has also decided to not even finish developing its iOS app, claiming Apple's rules are so confounding that it is impossible for the company to make an "acceptable" app.

Arc90's Rich Ziade wrote an "open letter" to Apple after receiving a rejection notice for Readability. The Readability service works via a bit of JavaScript code that reformats Web pages into an easy-to-read format that strips out ads and other elements not related to the main text. The company recently launched a web-based subscription service in which 70 percent of the money collected is paid to site publishers based on the content that its subscribers read—ostensibly paying those publishers for lost ad revenue. Readability keeps the remaining 30 percent.

Ziade complained that Apple's wording of its rules includes not just apps that offer content, but also "functionality or services." From Apple's point of view, Readability is offering a paid service without offering a method to pay for that service within the app itself using the in-app purchasing APIs, and for that reason rejected the app.