Would this have happened in Steve Jobs' walled garden? An iOS approver, or panel or team of approvers or something, allowed Big Fish Games to publish an app that enabled in-app purchasing of game title by subscription on the iPad.
That's a turn -- and sticking point -- for Apple and its app store -- as they seek to preserve their favorable revenue-sharing model with developers who sell within the store.
It also didn't last, because the company pulled the app a day after pushing it live.
As Roger McNamee said in a TedX talk recently, "... because Steve's pretty strict about who he lets in."
But Steve is gone and in-app purchases could erode Apple's wide profit margin for the app store. The revenue share deal tips significantly in its favor.
John Gruber thinks that an approver simply overstepped boundaries and was corrected. He also correctly asserts that Apple hasn't said a word about it, and that they may want to, since it addresses their overall iOS approval processes.
