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 ]
News tagged with: #book sold #barnes noble #raise prices #profits handed #things digital #steve jobs #android tablets

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Ladybird to publish Hello Kitty

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Marie Claire's Anti-Apple Maneuver

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[ AdWeek | 2011-06-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Self-published author hits one million Kindle sales

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Beware of Spam Titles in Kindle Store

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[ PC World | 2011-06-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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What Amazon Must Do to Save Kindle Direct Publishing

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[ PC World | 2011-06-18 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Century to publish Skinner's Times columns

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-17 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Angus & Robertson close 42 stores

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-16 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Sheema Mookherjee appointed LP India publisher

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ladybird to publish Peter Andre

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Distribution: WS Publishing Moves to Perseus

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-06-13 00:00:00 UTC ]
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BCA plans for 30% growth in next year

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Surprise! Apple Has Also Built Social Contact Integration With Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn and Myspace Into iOS 5

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[ AllThingsD | 2011-06-10 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-09 00:00:00 UTC ]
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HarperCollins to publish digital exclusives from MacBride

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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Apple Releases Newsstand with iOS 5

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[ Folio Magazine | 2011-06-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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[ The Bookseller | 2011-06-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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