Emails Reveal Why Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller Blocked In-Kindle Book Purchase

Apple’s internal emails, released by the House of Representatives Judicial Committee antitrust investigation, have revealed information on why Apple blocked in-app purchases on Kindle books on iOS devices, reports The edge.

Two sets of emails between Steve Jobs, Phil Schiller, Eddy Cue, and several other top Apple executives reveal the exact thinking behind how Apple approached Kindle on iOS. The current precedent was outlined by Steve Jobs, who stated, “I think this is all pretty simple: iBooks will be the only bookstore on iOS devices. We need to keep our heads up. One can read books bought elsewhere, but not buy / rent / subscribe from iOS without paying us, which we recognize is prohibitive for many things. “

Kindle books were originally available for purchase through the iOS app. Since 2011, the Kindle iOS app has only allowed users to read books in the app. The purchase of new titles can only be done in Safari, not in the application itself. This allows Amazon to avoid a 30% Apple surcharge on in-app purchases.

SchPhil Schiller‌ expressed concern in one of the emails that Amazon announced the fact that users were still able to access Kindle books purchased on iOS on Android devices, suggesting that it was wise to switch from iOS to Android.

Schiller explained that Apple initially made an exception for Amazon, because “users would buy books on a Kindle device and then access them on iPhone.” Over time, as sales of iOS devices increased dramatically, Schiller believed it was time to reconsider the exception. Amazon’s television advertising was a clear point of contention for Apple and caused the change in attitude.

These discussions took place when Apple planned to announce the revised App Store policies for subscriptions. Jobs suggested in his response that Amazon “should use our payment system for everything,” and justify this with the new subscription policies. “If they want to compare us to Android, let’s force our vastly superior payment system,” Jobs wrote.

Subsequently, Amazon removed a link to the Kindle Store in the iOS app to comply with the new App Store subscription rules. Thereafter, the storefront feature of the Kindle app was completely removed, with no open address on where to buy books.

Yesterday, other emails released by the US antitrust subcommittee revealed that Apple offered Amazon lower rates from the ‌App Store‌ to convince it to launch its Prime Video app on ‌‌App Store‌‌ and Apple TV.

The news that Apple made exceptions for Amazon for Kindle before 2011 and for Prime Video has caused confusion among some observers, as Apple has consistently claimed that it treats all developers the same way. SchPhil Schiller‌ stated before this week’s antitrust investigation that all apps in the ‌App Store‌ have been treated “the same way: one set of rules for everyone, no special offers, no special terms, no special code, everything applies to all developers in the same way. “