Filed under: Rumors, Software, iPhone, iPod touch
Rumor: Pay to re-download iPhone/iPod touch apps
If you own and iPod touch or an iPhone, you might have bought an app, deleted it for whatever reason and then downloaded it again from the App Store. Since Apple keeps a record of your purchases, you were presented with a dialog box saying that you could re-download that app for free.According to iPodNN, some developers with preview copies of iPhone OS 3.0 have seen a dialog box (pictured at right) prompting them to either re-download a missing app for free via their computer, or simply buy it again via their iPhones. Who knows why this could be, or if it will even make the final version of iPhone OS 3.0 -- one might think it's to save AT&T bandwidth, but why not restrict the option to WiFi?
In any case, we'll find out soon enough.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Seb said 5:51PM on 6-01-2009
This is not a rumor. I have seen the message on my phone. They are doing it because we are now allowed to sign out and sign in using a different account. So they are limiting us from downlading apps from others acounts for free.
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darkpaw said 5:51PM on 6-01-2009
Isn't this to stop people from logging in under a different user's credentials and downloading their apps for free on a different phone? In other words, if I buy an app and then give my login details to someone else, they get the app for free.
Just a thought.
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Eric Carroll said 5:52PM on 6-01-2009
I heard this was to circumvent an issue where you could log into your itunes account on multiple iphones (and the computers they sync with I assume) and "re-download" the app on a second phone without paying.
Seems fair, as long as I can re-download legally on my computer, I don't this minor inconvenience if it protects the App Developers, who, after all create most of the reasons I LOVE my iPhone...
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James Donevan said 6:05PM on 6-01-2009
"They are doing it because we are now allowed to sign out and sign in using a different account."
You have always been able to do this. For some unknown reason the myth persisted that you couldn't maintain several accounts and sign in/out as you chose. The only disadvantage to doing so was with respect to updating apps (wherein you might not have been able to access updates from different countries without switching to the specific account).
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Øivind said 6:05PM on 6-01-2009
In that case there should be a way to lock your phone to a single account, so you can keep re-downloading for free.
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Johnny said 6:06PM on 6-01-2009
My wife and I share a few apps. I simply copied the app to her computer and voila. She is already authorized to play my DRM music, so that is all there was to it.
You all made the same point which I believe to be the actual reason they did this. However, I don't see why they didn't just handle it the same way they did with DRM on music. You can only authorize the app on five devices. On apps, maybe they could limit that to 2-3 devices even. So if you logged in to iTunes with a different account and downloaded the app, it would be okay as long as it is not also on more than X amount of other devices.
To answer my own question: Of course, they didn't completely rewrite the way the DRM works on these apps so they had to stop the re-downloading at the store level since the phone itself does not really need to verify the DRM once it is installed. The DRM is verified on the computer it syncs with, not the phone itself.
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Dayton said 6:13PM on 6-01-2009
I have seen iTunes attempt to charge you twice if you download a song you have already bought. Case in point, if you download the free weekly track on one computer, and then try to download it again on another computer you own, but you are logged into the same iTunes account, it charges you money.
Dayton said 6:09PM on 6-01-2009
From what I have heard, this is to keep you from buying the app on your iPhone under your account, and then if you friend wants it, you download it on your their phone using your log in credentials. If you think about it, this is to prevent software piracy for paid iPhone apps. It is my understanding that Apple does not store the 40digit unique iPhone key with the app purchase, just your log in on the device and it goes back to your account.
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Cory said 6:24PM on 6-01-2009
Bad Idea.
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timepilot84 said 6:46PM on 6-01-2009
I love that the go-to reason TUAW uses is that AT&T is to blame. I'm surprised they haven't blamed Pippin and Pink on AT&T yet.
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Matthew said 9:22AM on 6-02-2009
In all fairness... AT&T has given a sufficient amount of reasons lately for them to be the go-to group to blame.
Must we remind you about Sling?
Matthew Zimmer said 9:26AM on 6-02-2009
In all fairness... AT&T has given a sufficient amount of reasons lately for them to be the go-to group to blame.
Must we remind you about Sling?
MJZimmer88 said 9:27AM on 6-02-2009
Sorry... stupid commenting system
whateverwhatever said 6:49PM on 6-01-2009
Oh wow, if Dave Caolo had any hint of journalistic ability he would have known that he's way wrong here. The shocking title and body text are vastly misleading. It's very well known by now that this closes a loophole that allowed me to give my apps to my roommate.
Example: I bought an app and put it on my iPhone. I copied that app file and gave it to my roommate. He syncs it to his iPod Touch. He would get this error message with 3.0 because it's my app not his.
Of course, if you want good, Apple related news with quality writing get it from Engadget/Gizmodo/Ars because TUAW is always a day late, a dollar short, way opinionated and often wrong.
http://gizmodo.com/5273822/rumor-iphone-30-to-stop-allowing-you-to-re+download-apps-for-free
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(01) said 9:16PM on 6-01-2009
The said thing is that TUAW used to be my go-to spot for Mac news....times have changed.
Maxwell said 10:09PM on 6-01-2009
No! I get this already gotcha because I use a Mac at home and a PC at work, and apps I buy on one are automatically deleted on the other. If I am NOT allowed to "re-buy" them, as far as I am concerned, Apple has just screwed me. It's bad enough just trying to figure out what apps have been deleted. (Has anyone else had to dig through the app purchases on their iTunes account and compare them to the ones still on their iPhone? That's one way to waste a morning.) Bah!
falcon5768 said 6:55PM on 6-01-2009
Jesus aren't we being a bit alarmist here TUAW. This story has been reported in depth on other sites already as is the reason (to prevent sharing apps which people had figured out how to do)
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Maxwell said 9:46PM on 6-01-2009
Then fix the problem without screwing honest users. I, for one, am getting very tired of figuring out which my apps iTunes has,in its infinite wisdom, deleted and "re-buying" them.
falcon5768 said 10:22PM on 6-01-2009
@Maxwell They ARE fixing it. As long as its on your iTunes account, and you go back to your computer, it will be there.
Quite frankly the fact Apple even allows you to do this on a phone is a step forward. Blackberry does not.
Maxwell said 10:49AM on 6-02-2009
@falcon5768 "As long as its on your iTunes account, and you go back to your computer, it will be there."
That's just my point - I use TWO computers, both of which are authorized for my iTunes library. If I buy an app on one and then sync to the other, iTunes deletes the app from my iPhone with no warning. That's totally bogus - it knows who I am and should be able to figure out what I bought. Palm got this right from the start. Why are Apple and, as you note, Blackberry so dumb?