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Apple's App Store Subscription Policies Raise Antitrust Issues as Content Providers F
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Bad analogy. Apple isn't delivering a thing to you. If you buy a book via the Kindle app/Amazon's website on your iPhone, Amazon is the one delivering it to you. They're paying for the servers the book is stored on, they're paying for the bandwidth used to deliver it to you. Apple plays no part in the transaction.
I'd be less apprehensive about this if it was more on the level of a processing fees and various content hosting/pushing whatever they need to do with it.. I don't understand why Apple think they can/should charge for 30% of a sub.. Other than their own profits how is this actually helping anyone?
Its going to be really interesting watching the fallout on this issue..
Its going to be really interesting watching the fallout on this issue..
The big difference here is that when you purchase a Kindle book, Apple does not do ANYTHING for you -- Amazon pushes the book to your device using their own servers and infrastructure.
Apple is now trying to force everybody to use Apple's infrastructure to obtain the content and furthermore, they want to hide the customers from the developers and content owners - they will be selling their content to an anonymous entity, which certainly is not in their interest.
None of this would be a problem if there were alternatives to Apple's infrastructure for delivering content to Apple's devices. But they created a Walled Garden, so this is a big issue.
Imagine Microsoft would have shut down Windows so that you could NOT use Apple's iTunes software and store on it but would force Apple to pay a 30% royalty for using the Xbox market place and Windows Media player to reach Windows users with their iDevices. That would be EXACTLY the same thing, but since it's Microsoft, you would all be screaming hell. But when Apple tries to pull off such a stunt, it's okay for you guys. That's totally nuts.
Unfortunately not:
"Steve Jobs, Apples CEO. All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app."
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/02/15appstore.html
So if you make any subscription offer outside the app you must make an offer within the app (at the same or lesser price)
This is what I am talking about...U go Google...but...they market place still sucks....but they have the potential to dominate. Microsoft were are you at what are you doing? Oh yeah you pretty much bought Nokia for peanuts...which was a good move since Nokia does know how to make awesome hardware.
It's not a gray area. an E-book is not a subscription, you buy it. it fall under purchases. It's no-tangible, has no physical presence, so you pay 30%. A hotel room or a ferry is tangible. So no in app purchase, and no 30%.
It is important that we vigorously punish any sort of innovation or success, especially when such innovation or success jeopardizes long-standing, obsolete business models.
Interestingly, that's exactly what the Times does at the moment: I'm a digital subscriber to the Times which costs £8.00 per month and gives access to the website along with the iPad apps for the Times and Sunday times. If you purchase In-App at the moment it's £9.99 for non-recurring 30 days access
You could be right, however keep in mind that is a press release in human understandable conversation speak not the actual technical rules. I have not see anything in the rules REQUIRING you to offer sign-up in iOS. Only things saying IF you offer sign-ups, you must .....
As a kid in the 1980s and 90s, Macs always seemed like barren wastelands with so little software and hardware options.
When so many legitimate apps leave the app store, will iPhones look the same?
When so many legitimate apps leave the app store, will iPhones look the same?
At first this shocked me but the more I thought about it the more it makes sense. Apple is the one who created all of the iOS devices and the iOS that people use to gain access to all of this content. Isn't more Netflix streaming done on the Apple TV than any other means of streaming? And Netflix gets all of that exposure for free? I'm not jumping for joy about Apple's decision but all of this anti-trust crap that is getting thrown around just doesn't make sense. Why wouldn't Apple charge people for using what they created?
Yeah it is hard... If they sell stuff elsewhere it has to be the same price as in iTunes store or more expensive... Except in iTunes they pay 30% to Apple... =/
So does Microsoft. Sadly, the marketing and software divisions screw them up. MS hardware and gaming are both really great divisions.
So by that same logic, all of the TV and DVD/Blu-Ray player manufacturers deserve a cut of Netflix subscriptions because their devices make Netflix possible. It's a bogus argument. iOS was not created specifically for Netflix, just like TVs and DVD players weren't created specifically for Netflix. Apple doesn't deserve a penny of Netflix's revenue.
I think this is part people don't understand, and I maybe wrong myself, Netflix, Pandora, etc, do not have links in their app to buy stuff, so they will to be effected this action. Apple is requiring Amazon to change their link to their website to buy book, which is pain, to an in app buy button. Which is an improvement for user in terms of it's a lot easier to buy a book. Apple is taking a the risk on the transaction, they should get paid for this risk and their fees for doing the transaction. Now the questions is should they get 30% or something smaller like 10%...
It works both ways my friend...they will just make 30 percent less if somebody subscribes though the app store. Apple has to make some kind of money since they are handling the transaction. Why would apple do this for free?
From wikipedia....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appstore
"In February 2011, Apple announced it's new subscription based service which will allow publishers to set the length and price of a subscription. Previously, new magazine or news releases would be sold on a per release basis. The new service allows publishers to sell their content through their apps allowing users to receive the new content over specified period of time. More interestingly is that Apple will allow publishers not only to sell from iTunes where revenue will be shared (70% for the publisher, 30% for Apple), but they are also allowing publishers to distribute their subscriptions directly from their websites where no revenue will be shared with Apple."
I think this is the nail Apple will take the fall on. It's like a brick and mortar store not allowing a magazine publisher to insert those subscription cards in their own magazines.
This seems to put lots of people in a place to make some very important choices.
For the content publishers, do you stay on iOS and eat lose the 30% from iOS customers, but at the same time get access to those millions of potential customers or do you leave the platform and leave those customers?
Then for the consumers, do you stick with iOS if publishers start to leave?
I think Apple is betting on everyone staying, as a publisher leaving the platform could mean a huge cut in revenue and users. And if they do stay then the customers will stay because now they have super easy billing for anything on the platform, just click buy and type your password, no more sign up forms and entering credit card information.
If it works it will make iOS just that more easy to use for the consumer, if it doesn't work then it could cause major issues for iOS in the future.
The next few months will certainly be interesting as an iOS developer...
For the content publishers, do you stay on iOS and eat lose the 30% from iOS customers, but at the same time get access to those millions of potential customers or do you leave the platform and leave those customers?
Then for the consumers, do you stick with iOS if publishers start to leave?
I think Apple is betting on everyone staying, as a publisher leaving the platform could mean a huge cut in revenue and users. And if they do stay then the customers will stay because now they have super easy billing for anything on the platform, just click buy and type your password, no more sign up forms and entering credit card information.
If it works it will make iOS just that more easy to use for the consumer, if it doesn't work then it could cause major issues for iOS in the future.
The next few months will certainly be interesting as an iOS developer...