UKC

I bought the Rockfax Dorset hard copy book. It's great.

I also like the app, both have their pros and cons.

Is there a way I can access the app with some sort of code, given I've already purchased the book?

In reply to MrWayne:

No, the App and books are separate purchases. There are a number of reasons for this.
1) We have no idea who has bought a book so would be unable to offer this for historic purchases.
2) Even if bought direct from our web site (so we could track purchases) there would still be no way we could do it currently within the Apple in-App purchase system that we are using. It simply isn’t allowed to give discounts and still use in-App purchases. This may change in the future.
3) We regard these as separate products anyway which are used in different ways. Rather like North Wales Climbs and North Wales Classics are separate products with similar content but different appeals.

Alan

In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

Could you do it with a licence-type scheme, similar the one the OS use with their new maps? Each map has a unique code revealed under a scratch panel, which is then used to allow access to the relevant download. Then it wouldn't matter what your selling system is.

In reply to tony:


As far as I can tell, this is a different system to the OS App which appears to be a subscription sevrice. A map download is different to an App with the extra functionality that an App offers.

Our understanding is that it isn't possible to have 'vouchers' or 'codes' for in-App purchases under the terms of the Apple App Store. We wanted to use the in-App purchase system to make the App more flexible for people when on the move so that they could buy crags without having to enter their card details all the time. Other Apps do use an ex-App system but with these you would need separate log-ins and have to enter your card details each time you bought a package. If you have Amazon Prime then you need to log into Amazon in order to buy a movie for example.

Also, scratch panels in each book are surprisingly expensive things to include which would almost certainly mean we had to put the price of the books up.

We are looking at options for improving our options for selling App packages since the Apple system is very restrictive but, as I said above, we do regard these as different products which are used in different ways and we currently have no plans to allow unrestricted free App access for book owners. The only exception might be if we can find a method of doing it for direct sales from the web site and then it would be likely be for special offers for limited periods only.

Alan

In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:


They offer both. A subscription allows access to all maps on the app for the period of the subscription. In addition, a code in each hard copy map allows lifetime (or as long as the app ecosystem lasts one assumes) access to that particular map on the app.

In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

I may as well bring this up in this thread Alan.
I was really excited at the prospect of the apps but can't justify paying the price for the rockfax ones as I already have the guidebooks, also when new revisions of the guidebooks come out I'll still rather get an actual paper copy of the book than a digital copy.
What I would be more inclined to do would be to pay a subscription fee which would enable me to have open access to all the rockfax app. Is there anything in the pipeline that would enable this?

In reply to Angrypenguin:

The situation is quite complicated but here goes...

We host our App data with Apple. That was convenient and easy when we first launched the App but it comes with restrictions. The main restriction is that you can't do anything like what OS are offering here. Basically they sell digital maps (or release using codes) on their web site which links to a user account. The App links to the same account and updates from their own OS servers downloading the map to the App. They don't sell these individual maps from within the App which is how they don't breach the App Store rules, they only offer subscription in-App.

We aren't able to do that since we don't host the data however it is something we want to do in the future and we will need to do it for Android since the Google Play store doesn't offer hosting of data anyway. It is a major change though and quite difficult to implement.

Once we do that we MAY be able to offer discounts and special offers for orders direct from the Rockfax web site, but that would probably come at the cost of allowing in-App direct purchases from the App itself since that is against the rules. This would mean that, if you used the App to locate a crag then, in order to buy the in-App guide, you would have to faff around logging into the Rockfax web site and entering your card details etc. which is far from ideal.

Alan

In reply to deacondeacon:


See above for some detail on why it is currently the way it is.

We could offer subscription and this may be a way to get around the problem I mention in the bottom para of my previous reply. It would need to be from content we hosted ourselves though which is a major change but one we do want to do at some stage.

In our survey the option of subscription was only supported by 13% of people, and pay per crag 36% so there is less support than you may think.

Alan