Just a few hours after being kicked off of the App Store yesterday, Google has amended their Google Books app to no longer link to Google’s external book store, which was against Apple’s in-app purchasing rules.
The rules essentially guarantee that Apple gets 30% of all content purchased through the iOS app, and forbids developers from linking to outside stores within their app, thus ensuring that Apple’s nice 30% slice is protected.
Google Books has now returned (App Store Link), having removed the link to their external store. This is just one more piece of evidence to suggest that when Apple decides to play hardball, they play it by their own rules – even against big players like Google and Amazon.