Won’t be that long before it won’t make sense to call out Apple for its “walled garden”. They’re all going that way.
Changes to your
Kindle app
To remain in compliance with updated Google Play Store policies, the option to buy or rent Kindle books or subscribe to Kindle Unlimited will no longer be available in the Kindle app for Android with the release of app version 8.58. You can continue to read books in your library, read samples, and browse within the app but will need to visit the website - Amazon.com/ebooks - on your preferred web browser to buy content or to subscribe to Kindle Unlimited.
I thought the change was that Google wants a piece of the in-app purchases now and they didn’t before. Am I wrong? It mentions a change in the Play Store policy.
In other words, Google’s Play Store is becoming just like the Apple App Store. Thus the title of the topic.
Just struggling with the walling people out in the app store part of the analogy. I think both Google and Apple are happy for folks to do business in their stores, they just want a cut. Paying toll to the troll, a protection racket…
actually what’s new is that Google has started enforcing the policy for all apps that involve payment/purchases.
Up until this point, if the app in question had been using Google’s purchasing mechanism prior to the new policy (early 2020) changes, Google gave them a grace period to either start paying the fee (still less than Apples’ ) or build out their own mechanism.
TLDR it’s the developers own fault for dragging their feet, and possibly Google’s too for letting them do it as long as they did.
BTW: I sort of get Google and Apples point in that there are definite ongoing costs in maintaining app stores not the least of which now is security. Now if that should cost you 30% is the question IMHO. And or a philosophical question as to if that should be a profit center in and of itself versus bringing customers to the platform.
Previously one of the advantages I saw with having an Android device was that I didn’t have to leave the Kindle app to buy e-books. Now there’s a wall just like in the Apple App Store. It’s an inconvenience.
As for the Amazon side, they are just treating it like they do Apple. It’s consistent. They’d probably run into trouble/complaints if they treated them differently… what am I saying? They’re going to get complaints anyway. Haters will hate.
I’m more sympathetic to the authors since I believe the 30% comes off the top so there’s less left in the pool to split between Amazon and the independent authors. Publishers too but I don’t feel too sorry for them, not since the whole ebook cartel thing.
Then again, before e-books and Amazon and all that, your typical mid-list author only got 5%. After the book sold enough to pay off the advance, that is, which might be like 3000 bucks or so.
One of my clients was the president of a certain genre’s Writers of America and I got an earful of the abuses publishers put them through. Repeated by other clients who were published authors before getting their book rights back and going ebook.
You don’t have to sell your book through Amazon though.
Now, doing so can get your book a lot of exposure and lessen the barrier to people buying it; but you pay for that. I feel that nowadays that barrier is less as more people are more comfortable with eBooks and don’t need their hands holding by Amazon.
