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I completely agree. Arrogance came close to destroying Apple in the 90's and it looks like Steve and Co. haven't learned that lesson. Google is going to capitalize on this in a MASSIVE way. Conde Nast and others I predict will tell Apple to go to hell. The quality of the Google platform (Honeycomb) and their fast growing market share will seal the deal. As an example, *I* am not so sure I'll buy the iPad 2 now...I may have just convinced myself to go Google. (Motorola Xoom)

Yes Google who is going to get sued huge by Oracle

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/21/android-source-code-java-and-copyright-infringement-whats-go/
 
So why's it's Apple's business to tell Amazon what price they have to sell books for on their store? Apple are trying to dictate what someone else is allowed to sell their items for on their store.

Because it flew through their ecosystem. You cannot control outside your ecosystem, but certainly can set terms for what happens within.

Apple is not telling Amazon how much to set the book price. It can be 99 cents or 999 dollars. It is not telling Amazon whether to take 30% or 10% or 80%. It only asks to be priced comparable WITHIN the app store.
 
Apple is not telling Amazon how much to set the book price. It can be 99 cents or 999 dollars. It is not telling Amazon whether to take 30% or 10% or 80%. It only asks to be priced comparable WITHIN the app store.

it's not in the app store. It's in the app.
 
Because it flew through their ecosystem. You cannot control outside your ecosystem, but certainly can set terms for what happens within.

Apple is not telling Amazon how much to set the book price. It can be 99 cents or 999 dollars. It is not telling Amazon whether to take 30% or 10% or 80%. It only asks to be priced comparable WITHIN the app store.

It's asking or it's telling?

It's saying to Amazon. No, it's TELLING Amazon. If you price a book at $10 in your iOS app, we Apple are telling you, you are not allowed to sell this same book for less, your book, on your web site, for less.

How on earth can that ever be right?
 
It's saying to Amazon. No, it's TELLING Amazon. If you price a book at $10 in your iOS app, we Apple are telling you, you are not allowed to sell this same book for less, your book, on your web site, for less.
Except Apple has set no such policy for single-purchase items, only subscriptions.
 
Here is the real world.

Your T-shirt costs 20 cents to make in a Chinese factory.
The Chinese company sells it at 50 cents each to a Chinese distributor.
The distributor sell it at $1 to an US distributor.
The US distributor sells it at $3 to Walmart.
Walmart sells to you at $8.

My point is, money is money, there is no morality in money. You cannot say "you can make 30% if you do this, but only 20% if you do that." The market decides how much each can get. It is up to the source and the destination to decide whether to make sense to push the product through a chain. If it doesn't make sense for the source, they simply withdraw the product. If it doesn't make sense for the destination (consumer), you don't buy.

That's all the control everyone has, as the content provider, or as consumer. It is perfect fine to say "I will take my app off App Store", or "I won't buy an iPhone or iPad", but it is not your or my business to tell Apple what to do.

I don't think I said anything to the contrary in my post. My point is that it is worse for me as an iOS user for Apple to pile their new 30% charge on top of Amazon's current Kindle price structure, for the reasons I gave. However, as I also said, I believe that Apple is free to do this. Each person making an ownership decision regarding an iOS device will then make their decision based on the things that matter to them. For instance, I have an iPad now, and was considering buying an iPad 2 when it comes out. However, if Kindle books, Nook books, Hulu, Netflix are more expensive on iOS than on other devices, or if they are no longer available on iOS but are available on other devices, then an iOS device is now less desirable than it previously had been. I might now decide to buy a Xoom rather than an iPad 2. Or, I might decide I still prefer the iPad 2. Or maybe I go back to using my MacBook Air and Kindle device in tandem, rather than using an iPad at all. You asked why isn't it ok for Apple to add on their extra 30%. My answer is that while a don't believe that anything prohibits Apple from adding their charge on top of Amazon's charges, it reduces the utility of iOS to me as a consumer, and I am less likely to choose the iOS device the next time I am considering buying a smart phone or a tablet.
 
It's asking or it's telling?

It's saying to Amazon. No, it's TELLING Amazon. If you price a book at $10 in your iOS app, we Apple are telling you, you are not allowed to sell this same book for less, your book, on your web site, for less.

How on earth can that ever be right?

So?

Apple is NOT FORCING Amazon to use App Store! For god's sake, Amazon is free to use whatever other channels and actually Kindle was doing just fine before they put it on iOS.

A asks B for some conditions to put B's product/service at A's store. If B doesn't like the term, B is free to walk away. That doesn't make A's request immoral or unreasonable or evil or stupid.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; sv-se) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

grockk said:
That's a loophole that you have no reason to believe Apple will allow, considering that Apple has directly addressed the issue of loopholes (in terms of whether companies will be allowed to charge more for the subscription through Apple) and Apple said, 'no, they will be expected to offer the same product at the same or better price'.

Ah, but the 8.99 is for DVD+Streaming to computer or other approved devices. iOS is an add-on. If I don't want to watch on my iPhone, I save. If I decide that I'd want to stream I could easily sign up in app for the 99 cent add on.

If that is the case then it will ne interesting to see how consumers react when they get every single device possible except iOS for a cheaper price, on every single kind of those services.

"hmm, should I buy an iPhone? Theres an android device right next to it that seems to be just as good. The android device is cheaper and Netflix and all that stuff is 30% cheaper. Decisions... Decisions..."
 
I don't think I said anything to the contrary in my post. My point is that it is worse for me as an iOS user for Apple to pile their new 30% charge on top of Amazon's current Kindle price structure, for the reasons I gave. However, as I also said, I believe that Apple is free to do this. Each person making an ownership decision regarding an iOS device will then make their decision based on the things that matter to them. For instance, I have an iPad now, and was considering buying an iPad 2 when it comes out. However, if Kindle books, Nook books, Hulu, Netflix are more expensive on iOS than on other devices, or if they are no longer available on iOS but are available on other devices, then an iOS device is now less desirable than it previously had been. I might now decide to buy a Xoom rather than an iPad 2. Or, I might decide I still prefer the iPad 2. Or maybe I go back to using my MacBook Air and Kindle device in tandem, rather than using an iPad at all. You asked why isn't it ok for Apple to add on their extra 30%. My answer is that while a don't believe that anything prohibits Apple from adding their charge on top of Amazon's charges, it reduces the utility of iOS to me as a consumer, and I am less likely to choose the iOS device the next time I am considering buying a smart phone or a tablet.

I said earlier, as consumer, we will have to wait and see whether this will make a real impact. Personally, I doubt so. We will know by July 1st, won't we?
 
This is absolutely insane! If the prices on ALL ebooks etc go up across the board even outside of the Apple eco system just so content providers can make up the 30% loss, or if those apps leave iOS all together, then I guess I won't be buying any more ebooks.

And if it continues on to other forms of content, the iphone will then become useless. But if they stay in iOS, then everyone even on Android, Windows Mobile etc. will notice the mark-up in price to compensate for the 30% loss because of the stupid *SS rule that prices inside the app must be the same or lower!!

This is BAD BAD BAD for us as consumers.... ebooks etc will soon become way too expensive to make them worth the convenience.

If that happens, I fully intend to NOT buy any more... Apple is literally driving people to pirate. Why are people going to pay $4-5.00 more on a 10.00 book just to line Apple's pockets, when you can get the PDF file for most ebooks free through Torrents and read them on any good word-wrapping PDF reader for free.... yes, including iBooks!!

You KNOW the content providers won't eat the 30% loss.... WE WILL!!!
 
So?

Apple is NOT FORCING Amazon to use App Store! For god's sake, Amazon is free to use whatever other channels and actually Kindle was doing just fine before they put it on iOS.

A asks B for some conditions to put B's product/service at A's store. If B doesn't like the term, B is free to walk away. That doesn't make A's request immoral or unreasonable or evil or stupid.

while not forcing yes. But that does not change the fact that Apple is abusing its raw size and power by forcing others out of the market. They are abusing their power in App store to force more sell of iBooks (new product) and other service that they control.
It is also preventing others from competting. A company of Apple raw size and power has different rules it is required to follow because it is being anti competitive. Other wise known as anti trust laws.
 
Google announces their alternative

As reported by CNET, Google offers an alternative where publishers get to keep 90% AND retain control of consumer data. Obviously this was expected. Moreover, I do not think anything prevents content providers from building their own (and totally free) subscription services. Good luck Apple! And some people wonder why Android is kicking iOS ass :p
 
while not forcing yes. But that does not change the fact that Apple is abusing its raw size and power by forcing others out of the market. They are abusing their power in App store to force more sell of iBooks (new product) and other service that they control.
It is also preventing others from competting. A company of Apple raw size and power has different rules it is required to follow because it is being anti competitive. Other wise known as anti trust laws.

As a business, the only purpose is to make money. Whether others can survive is not your concern. Actually, I bet Apple would be glad to force Kindle out of market.

So, don't use morality as argument for business decisions.

Deliverator007 made way better argument than you from consumer point of view. At the end of the day, the consumers will decide whether Apple's move is smart or not.
 
Well, that's not how I interpret that article but I guess there is still some details to be "ironed out". I look forward to hearing more about how this all shakes down.

As a paid dev you should have access to the actual iOS Developer Program License Agreement us mortals can't access. Have you read the latest version to come to that interpretation?

B
 
As a business, the only purpose is to make money. Whether others can survive is not your concern. Actually, I bet Apple would be glad to force Kindle out of market.

So, don't use morality as argument for business decisions.

Deliverator007 made way better argument than you from consumer point of view. At the end of the day, the consumers will decide whether Apple's move is smart or not.

What is stopping iBooks from having everything amazon does? I thought I remembered Amazon strong arming some things with publishers, but I couldn't say anything for certain....
 
Can someone refresh my memory on how apple convinced all the record companies to agree to the 30% on songs?

Were these same debates happening back than regarding music? Just want some historical perspective. The 30% is so accepted now it seems ho hum but were people up in arms screaming bloody hell when apple proposed it and calling for apples head?

They'l have way more subscribers and be able to charge more for advertising.

When Apple rolled iTunes, it was Mac ONLY. Their install base was nothing in comparison. Napster and the like were huge issues at the time, and it let the labels experiment with a legit offering on a small platform with little risk. It was under dog Apple, who cared? For music, a 30% cut is not bad either. No discs, no jewl cases, no booklet printing, no shipping, no warehouse inventory, and Apple hosts and handles all billing. The problem the record labels have is that it worked.... & gave Apple a monopoly and took control out of the labels hands. A legal online music store had never been done before. And now with music sales on a decline, they can't afford to lose the sales, and haven't found an alternative. This is why they are playing hardball with Apple on video. They learned a lesson.

Subscriptions are different. The money isn't made off the subscription, it's made off ads in the periodical and that ad revenue has been on a decade long decline as people are turning to free web outlets for news and content. Magazine are on the endangered species list. Stores sell magazines as a convenience to their customers. (A brick and mortal store doesn't even clear 10% profit on a magazine, some none cause they discount them.) Apple should be happy to have content for their devices. This just pushes the envelope on how the magazine and newspaper industry have existed for all eternity.

not really...which is why there is still no "paid" Angry Birds on it. google is an advertising company, they dont make it easy to sell non-advertising-model apps.

No... the fragmentation issues made for a poor user experience with Angry birds, and Rovio realized they couldn't charge money for a product they couldn't assure performance with. Once Google's new tools fix the problem (updated app coming any day now) there will be a pay version of angry birds. You can't charge someone for an app that you can't ensure will work on their device. This has been the case for a LOT of games and other apps. Google has an updated tool that should fix the issue, providing device makers make the update available to the older versions of the OS. This let Rovio get the app on another platform and still make some income.
 
NICE. I've been waiting for the Fandango App to allow in app purchasing of movie tickets. Apple totally deserves a 30% cut of that when that happens.
 
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