Today Apple annouced they will now be supporting subscriptions in the App Store. This has been discussed at length over the past few months and no one wants to beat a dead horse, but reading the press release one section stuck out.
“Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s 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. We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers.”
Seems pretty simple; customer starts the subscription in the app and the publisher gets 70%, start the subscription out of the app and the publisher gets 100%. The caveat being that both subscriptions have to be the same price. What if a magazine wants to give digital subscriptions as part of their standard snail mail issue subscription? Would the publisher have to give the same offer through their app and subsequently give Apple 30% of their print issue business as well?
I for one will be subscribing to items directly on publisher's websites if I have the option. Getting 30% in the App Store is one thing, but 30% when you are mearily a credit card processor is akin to robbery.
As Marco Arment said on Twitter:
Apple's "you must sell subscriptions through us, at the same price or less, if you also sell them on your website" is a huge dick move.
[Apple]
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