Apple blocks SkyDrive app for iOS devices as Microsoft balks over 30% App Store fee

“The difficulty began when Microsoft rolled out the ability for SkyDrive users to purchase more storage space on the service. From that point, the company was not permitted to update its application in the iOS App Store,” Alex Wilhelm reports for TNW. “The reason? It doesn’t pay Apple a 30% cut of subscription revenue generated by the application through the paid, additional storage. Microsoft does not appear keen to pay Apple the 30% cut, as it lasts in perpetuity, regardless of whether a user continues to use an iOS device or not, as the billing is through their Apple account.”

Wilhelm reports, “Therefore, if a user signed up for a few additional gigabytes on their iOS device, and then moved to Android or Windows Phone or not phone at all, for the length of their account, Apple would collect 30% of their fee for storage. This hasn’t sat well with Microsoft.”

The number of people incurring brain injuries severe enough to cause them to downgrade from an iOS device to an inferior platform is negligible. And, as if Apple gives two shits about what sits well with Microsoft.

“Microsoft has persisted in trying to work out a compromise with Apple, but has thus far failed to come to an agreement. The company offered to remove all subscription options from its application, leaving it a non-revenue generating experience on iOS. The offer was rebuffed,” Wilhelm reports. “If a service has a subscription option, it seems, and it is not listed in the iOS store, the application cannot, and will not be allowed… TNW suspects that the sticking point in that matter was the ability to sign up for SkyDrive through the application, a ‘no’ in Apple books.”