Apple Subscription Brouhaha
A run-down of the recent brouhaha regarding Apple's new terms of service governing in-app subscriptions.
The original press release - "when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share". Highlights - doesn't differ from the 30/70 split of apps, publishers have to offer the same or lower price in-app. Publishers can still offer web subscription, just not exclusively. Subscription must be supported in the app, and no hand-off to mobile-web app for external subscription is allowed.
Music royalties leave no wiggle room for supporting 30%, and no way to recoup that with higher subscription costs in-app.
"Very glad we went with HTML5 for the new Basecamp mobile site. Being a sharecropper is a bitch."
Compelling argument for the idea that 30% is actually 100% of the value of the mobile app.
In the end - another reason for going the mobile web route.
I'm not a lawyer, but it has been hard to see anti-trust potential in Apple's move. The best argument for anti-trust is in this piece. Apple offers a competing product (iBooks) that uses private APIs - something that will get your app banned if you try to do. I'm left wondering if something will become of that angle.
But it's not clear if there is anything there.
"In the end, Apple envisions a world in which people don't consume any kind of digital media without its help," - Mr McQuivey.
