Apple? Greedy? Perish the thought! Some bleeding edge iPhone users may beg to differ though: this past weekend, some of them were prompted to pay up again when trying to re-download an already-purchased app.
Blogger and Twittizen iPhonedocked (a.k.a. J. Doss in meatspace), along with a few other users came across this peculiar pop-up while playing around with iPhone OS 3.0’s beta build. When they attempted to download an app that they had previously purchased, well… you can see the image. Apps can be downloaded from iTunes onto PCs and Macs and then loaded onto iPhones with impunity, but if you really miss your deleted copy of Amateur Surgeon, you’re not getting it back for free while on the go. The bigger question is, why would Apple change their policy on over-the-air downloads?
The prime suspect is probably the iPhone’s spotty relationship with AT&T’s network. With the iPhone’s polished web capabilities, more and more people are surfing and downloading over the air by the day. It doesn’t help that Cupertino’s latest iPhone is rumored to support mobile video uploading, which would put even more strain on AT&T’s towers. We’ve seen what can happen when AT&T’s network is pushed to the limit, and with Apple poised to release what is sure to be another bestseller at some point in the near future, it wouldn’t be surprising to see them try and reduce the load on AT&T’s network by discontinuing free app re-downloads. They’ve made attempts in the past, most notably by capping the size of over-the-air app downloads to 10MB, so this certainly seems like a logical move for Apple.
For now though, we can all take solace in the fact that the prompt doesn’t pop up every time, and could easily be tweaked away before the software goes gold. Hopefully, we’ll have a solid answer for you by the time WWDC kicks off next week.
EDIT: In this case, applying Occam’s Razor would’ve helped – Apple’s intent is to prevent multiple people from re-downloading the same apps to different phones using 1 iTunes account. Thanks to Jason and Travis Clark for the update in the comments.
haha thats just … ridiculous
This is retarded!
I wonder if wifi downloads are still supported, if not, that’s so stupid.
makes sense to me.
if you’re stupid and delete your app, and need it ASAP and can’t wait til you get back to your computer, then pay up for the convenience of downloading it NOW. (since you stupidly deleted it)
I bet being over charged for text messages makes sense, as well as data plans that exclude certain types of data. Technology should be easy, cheap, and accessible. The argument of “Why were you not prepared before you left the sweet tethering of your PC?” is lame. The rates that are being charged for data is the “pay up”. If AT&T can’t handle it, then Apple should move to someone else.
Gizmodo seems to think it’s because of the “Account Sharing” loophole. Basically, you let your friend use your iTunes account to re-download apps that you purchased onto the friends phone. This will stop this from being possible.
This wouldn’t stop it at all. You could still download it again from the desktop. Its more to prevent people from re-downloading the same app over and over again. There are people who actually only have 10 apps or so then keep re-downloading the same app … use it for a bit, then delete it until the next time they need it.
Its retarded I know … but people do it.
This doesn’t surprise me. It’s the same for music that I’ve purchased from iTunes.
I guess the user will have to be more careful as to how they manage their apps on the road.
Tim ~ developer of POOP THE WORLD gps tracker for the iPhone
Relax people, if you sync your iPhone to iTunes you will be ok. There will always be a physical copy of the app left on your computer even if you delete the app off your iPhone.
They only did it because people were taking advantage of a loophole and app-sharing.
Mountain meet molehill
“The prime suspect is probably the iPhone’s spotty relationship with AT&T’s network.”
–
Don’t you mean “The prime suspect is probably the iPhone’s relationship with AT&T’s spotty network.”??
More appropriate, no doubt.
This is a real bummer. I don’t keeping every app I have ever tried on my iPhone, and I almost never sync with iTunes. This just makes it more difficult for me to use one device. I do not understand how this will “thwart multiple account sharing”.
I bought the netshare app before it was dropped from the store. I also jailbroke my iphone and reformatted my macbook too. I checked out the app store a few months ago to redownload the netshare app after reinstalling the proper firmware and it wasn’t available. I emailed apple and they said I was sol. In my case the app was banned so I guess it made sense that I couldn’t redownload it. But in this case, they just want to take more of your hard earned money.
I don’t see how this is a big deal. This only applies when you redownload from your iPhone. You can still redownload from iTunes and it will still be free.
This is bad. I’ve had to uninstall/reinstall apps just because they crashed on launch. Yes, I tried rebooting to no avail. Yes, I bought “free memory” to see if that would help – it didn’t. The only thing that helped was removing/installing an app. (any app) what a fraking drag.
This is racist !
HA! This is what happens when a Developer makes a decision without consulting a UX designer.
Apple’s normally better than this… I bet it will be changed shortly.
iRape!
This is the new product for iFans. It means they willingly open their dignity to be raped by Apple, with a smile on their face.
yet another reason not to buy an apple product. Oh I so wish they werent so intrusive and moneygrubbing. The UI is amazing, the design is magnificent, the taste it leaves in my mouth… disgusting.
this is not a big deal, obviously they are themselves telling you to re download it for free, whats wrong than?
just another inconvenience on behalf of someone’s greed
It’s not an 3.0 thing. I’ve seen this on the 2.2.1 OS