Apple App Store subscription plan gouges publishers, eats their young

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews Somebody call the cops -- eh, antitrust authorities. Apple's subscription plan is here, and it's as bad for many, if not most, publishers as rumored. The first of several key sentences from Apple's press announcement: "Publishers may no longer provide links in their apps (to a website, for example) which allow the customer to purchase content or subscriptions outside of the app." That means you Amazon Kindle; before the announcement, all Kindle transactions took place outside the app in a web browser. This change applies to any content, but it's nestled in the subscriptions announcement.Another piece of nastiness: "Apple does require that if a publisher chooses to sell a digital subscription separately outside of the app, that same subscription offer must be made available, at the same price or less, to customers who wish to subscribe from within the app." That rule conceptually would prevent some publishers from extending to existing customers the benefits of a free iPad subscription."So, Apple doesn't prohibit publishers from selling subscriptions outside the app -- how could it and get anyone to offer content? But the company does fix prices. So if publisher A charges 50 bucks a year and wants to offer a holiday or school graduation promotion from its website, the deal must be offered for app subscriptions, too. Remember, Apple collects 30 percent from publishers.No one should misunderstand other terms, as stated in Apple's press release:... Continue reading at 'Betanews'

[ Betanews | 2011-02-15 00:00:00 UTC ]

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Google One Pass gives back what Apple's iPad subscription plan takes away

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews Well, that didn't take long. One day after Apple dropped its subscription plan bomb on suspicious publishers, Google officially countered with One Pass. Google strips out the onerous restrictions Apple imposes. It's a brilliant marketing response, and aptly timed with new... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2011-02-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple App Store subscription plan gouges publishers, eats their young

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews Somebody call the cops -- eh, antitrust authorities. Apple's subscription plan is here, and it's as bad for many, if not most, publishers as rumored. The first of several key sentences from Apple's press announcement: "Publishers may no longer provide links in their apps... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2011-02-15 00:00:00 UTC ]
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iPad is a devil's deal for publishers

By Joe Wilcox, Betanews Apple's approach to magazine and newspaper subscriptions and third-party ebook sales stink of the kind of practices that got Microsoft into trouble with trustbusters on two continents during the late 1990s and early 2000s. A year ago, publishers embraced iPad as the... Continue reading at Betanews

[ Betanews | 2011-02-04 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Barnes & Noble Digital Newsstand Passes 650,000 Periodical Downloads

While publishers and Apple haggle over the pending launch of a digital newsstand, Barnes & Noble took the opportunity to remind everyone that it not only has a functional newsstand, but it's chugging right along. Continue reading at Folio Magazine

[ Folio Magazine | 2011-01-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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