Let me know if there is a more appropriate forum for this question -- this Cocoa list was the best I could find, especially considering that I am not one of the lucky few in the "official" iphone developer program, and do not see any other avenues of getting my questions answered.
I'm developing an application for Cocoa & Cocoa Touch, which will synchronize notes between a PC and Phone. The system requires the use of a centralized server, which store and manage the synchronization. I want to sell the application through the AppStore, but am not sure of the best way to deal with pricing, especially since if a user manages to defeat the DRM in the AppStore, they would not only pirate the application, but would cause me additional monthly charges in data storage, traffic, etc. I have some options I'm considering, such as: 1. Price the application as free in the AppStore, and charge separately for the synchronization service. This means the iPhone app could be used to write/edit notes (and save them locally on their phone), but would not be able to synchronize them with another device until they get a synchronization account. I could offer the subscription elsewhere (eg, on google checkout), and once the payment is verified, I would provision an account for the user. This in my mind would be the safest way -- and also makes sense for other scenarios in the future, such as if the end user doesn't have an iPhone, and wants to synchronize notes between 2 or more Macs (thus there is no AppStore for them). Would Apple consider this a way of cheating their distribution model? 2. Price the application at $15 (for example), which would include 1 year of service. This would be the most convenient for the end-user, but I'm concerned about: - What happens when the 12 months expire, does the user need to purchase the app "again" from the AppStore? This would likely violate the AppStore policies. - What happens if users are able to copy the app to another device/pirate it. I would have no way of knowing the difference between a "paid" user, and one who pirated it. Unless Apple would provide developers with the serial numbers of the devices who paid for the app, I really wouldn't know who to kick off of the service. I'm really not sure which way to go here -- it isn't very clear to me how applications+service type apps should be sold & distributed under their umbrella. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. thanks -- -bri _______________________________________________ Cocoa-dev mailing list (Cocoa-dev@lists.apple.com) Please do not post admin requests or moderator comments to the list. Contact the moderators at cocoa-dev-admins(at)lists.apple.com Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/cocoa-dev/archive%40mail-archive.com This email sent to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
