What's the actual change here?<p>It seems like companies like Netflix, for instance, have been doing this for years - you can buy the service via the app store if you want, or you can buy it directly, but you can still use it either way.<p>Netflix contacts its users about payments via email all the time. What's new?
I wonder if external-only payment as part of a "confirm your account" step would be permitted with this change? i.e.<p>- user downloads Netflix wanting to sign up<p>- user enters their email address, ticking a box to confirm they consent to being contacted in order to complete their account setup<p>- the email contains a link to the sign-up form on netflix.com, including the payment form<p>While it's absolutely absurd to still have to jump through so many hoops, this would be a significant improvement over the current situation which has a "Sign In" button and nothing else.