Amazon and Wal-Mart Taking On Apple?
By danseitz
Pretty much if you want to put out an application in this day and age, especially for anything mobile, you have to put out an iOS version. Apple pretty much controls the smartphone and the tablet computer market. Defying them is practically fiscal suicide. You’ve got to have deep pockets to defy the biggest company in the world.
You know, like being the biggest web store in the world. Or the biggest retailer.
Yep, Amazon and Wal-Mart are both putting it on the line today by rolling out apps that don’t support the most popular platform. Amazon is debuting the Kindle Cloud Reader, while Wal-Mart is rolling out its Vudu Web app to sell movies to on-the-go tab users.
It’s not that they’re locked out of the iOS; as web-based applications, anything that can access the Internet can use them. It’s just that they’re not offering a dedicated app in the iOS Store.
Why, you may ask? Why else? Money. Apple recently put out demands: no links to stores within apps…and if you make any in-app purchases, 30% of that revenue goes straight to Apple. Needless to say, these two behemoths didn’t approve of another trying to push them around. We’ll see how it goes, but we’re pretty sure Apple isn’t happy and will probably act to punish them in the future.
