Digitalsubscriptions for the iPad are here . Huzzah ! Sounds passably serious ! you’re able to take to the New Yorker or PopSci with one pawl , and it ’s automagically cede . No in - app purchase ; no muss , no fuss . I ’ve been hold out on regenerate my paper mag subscription , waiting for this very minute .
https://gizmodo.com/will-apples-new-content-subscriptions-punish-you-upda-5760839
But it ’s not all puppy and rainbow . In the jam vent announce these subscription , there are two key sections that merit second look .
Apple does require that if a publisher choose to sell a digital subscription separately alfresco of the app , that same subscription offer must be made useable , at the same cost or less , to customer who wish to take from within the app . In addition , publishers may no longer provide linkup in their apps ( to a web site , for example ) which appropriate the customer to buy content or subscription outside of the app .
And then there ’s :
Apple today denote a fresh subscription service useable to all publishers of content - based apps on theApp Store , including magazines , newspapers , video , music , etc .
These two sections bring three really dangerous idea :
• If a companionship deal a subscription to their table service or subject matter outside of the App Store , they must offer it through Apple ’s new subscription military service for the same price , or cheaper .
• The subscription rule apply to more than just paper and magazines — they enforce to music and video service too , like Rdio and Rhapsody and Netflix andHulu Plus
• Apps that betray content through a website pop - up or yoke to their web store — like Amazon ’s Kindle or B&N ’s Nook — can’t do that anymore . Apple hasconfirmed separatelythat the unexampled principle sham Amazon and “ other booksellers ” with apps for the iPhone or iPad — precisely what was indicate when Appleblocked Sony ’s referee appa few weeks ago .
Did Apple Just Neuter iPad Ebook Apps ? ( Update : Sorta ! )
Apple pick out a 30 per centum swing of every transaction . In other Good Book , Apple is rust the people that provide the things that make the iPad special .
Everybody has until June 30 to abide by with the new dominion , agree to a memoApple has transmit to developers : “ To insure your app persist on the App Store , please relegate an update that uses the In App Purchase API for purchasing depicted object , by June 30 , 2011 . ”
But check it . reckon you ’ve never used Rhapsody before ( or the NYT or Rdio or whatever ) , and you download the app . When you open up the app , you ask to buy a subscription . Do you :
or B ) Wait until you go home and pledge on your computer ?
Who in their right mind is going to take group B ? Publishers ca n’t use the temptingness of a low price to entice masses to put up with the spare footstep of register with their computer , because Apple explicitly restrict it . Unless a user was very driven that theNew York Timesget 100 - percent of their money , these subscription are going to go through Apple . Very few mass care that much though , and fewer still will sympathize the difference .
While paper publishers are interlace into a Saw - esque gob for survival on the iPad , Apple is outright chicane Amazon . They ca n’t let people buy books through their stock on the iPad , and if Apple leave in - app buying of Kindle books , every leverage will go through Apple ’s system — meaning Apple will take a 30 percent slue on every Kindle book sell on the iPad or iPhone , basically get rid of whatever profit Amazon makes . And Amazon ca n’t pull out of the iOS ecosystem without break its key premise : the power to read your books on basically any gadget out there . Amazon has gone from sort - of support Apple ’s iPad and ecosystem in the process of progress its own to being retain hostage by it . Khaaaan !
Do n’t believe this only screws big companies like the NYT or Amazon . My preferred reading military service on iOS devices by far isInstapaper , which zaps the textbook from essentially any website to your iPhone or iPad for read offline . I come super frantic by creator Marco Arment’splan to allow developers to make full Instapaper appsfor any platform ( like Android or WP7 ) , paid for by $ 1 / calendar month subscription . It mighttake money out of his pockettoo .
It also move means beyond company that just issue Good Book . If Apple implement the ruler equally to affair like music subscription religious service ( which it imply it will in the press spill ) , like Rdio , Pandora and Rhapsody , it could be ruinous to these companies . Rhapsody enunciate direct up : “ an Apple - imposed arrangement that involve us to pay 30 percent of our taxation to Apple , in addition to contentedness fees that we give to the music label , publishing company and artists , is economically untenable . ” For those of you who do n’t speak administrator , that ’s Rhapsody president Jon Irwin state that his company can not give to offer its service under Apple ’s unexampled prescript . They will leave .
And Rhapsody ca n’t be alone . Netflix ’s Watch immediately requires a subscription . So does Hulu Plus . Can they afford to give Apple 30 percent of their subscription revenue ? And again , harmonise to the rules , they ca n’t provide users the unproblematic choice in - app of go through their store or Apple ’s . It ’s not a real choice .
In technological term , this is a dick move . fortuitously , Rhapsody is fighting back . To close his letter , Irwin put forward that “ we will be collaborating with our grocery peers in find out an appropriate legal and business enterprise reaction to this latest development . ” Here ’s another , slightly related technical terminus : ballsy . It occupy real guts to suffer up to Apple on this , and we acclaim the persuasion . And it willbe a fight .
The fact is , that Apple ’s new subscription — while justifiably enfold in the smooth , glossy pelage of user - friendliness — are a major might snap that tuck the companionship between basically every content supplier and every iPad and iPhone exploiter . You know what ? That ’s fine . That ’s how ecosystems like this workplace . call back of all the products and services that exist and feed off of into Twitter and Facebook . Apple should take a cut . Just not an amount so significant it mightkill the citizenry who have helped make the iPad experience so great .
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