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Amazon removes in-app purchases from Kindle app

Amazon is the latest company to bow to Apple in-app purchase rules, removing the facility to buy books from within its iPad and iPhone apps.

Yesterday we brought you news that Kobo has updated its iPad app to remove the facility to buy books within an app, following the removal of in-app purchases for the Nook Kids app and the removal of the Google Books from the app store. At the time the Kindle store seemed to be working as normal and we speculated when this would change. Well it’s happened very quickly.

Update 2.8 dated July 25th states: This update removes the Kindle Store button from the app.

Amazon is the latest company to update it’s app, you can still access archived items, but the ‘Kindle Store’ button has gone. To buy books now you need to go the the Amazon website and and log into your account and select your device. Amazon has put in a useful button that automatically launches Kindle for iPad and downloads the book automatically to your homescreen.

Of course Amazon Kindle owners can avoid the rule change simply by not downloading the update, however this does mean that mean you could miss out on new features available via update.

It’s no surprise really, as earlier this year Apple announced that apps selling books/magazines etc outside of the app store, had to make the same offers available via the app. The crunch being that Apple would be taking 30% of all in-app revenue. eBook app developers had to build in the facility to buy books or remove the facility to buy in store.

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