Subscriptions battle between Apple and Publishers
29 July 2010
The iPad news just keeps on coming. It’s been well documented that getting an iPad App approved by Apple is not the quickest or easiest process…… this week we hear how that frustration is now felt by Times Inc. and this could pose a problem for many other publishers in the near future.
It is reported that Apple has banned Times’ Inc from selling and managing subscriptions for its Sports Illustrated iPad apps. According to a recent article on All things Digital the publisher had planned to launch a subscription version of its Sports Illustrated iPad app, where consumers would download the magazines via Apple’s iTunes but pay Time Inc. directly not through the iTunes store.
The subscriptions area is a huge deal for publishers. Not only do subscriptions give publishers recurring revenue, but perhaps more importantly they give the publisher invaluable readership and customer data that enable them to keep track of their subscribers.
This situation has come to somewhat of a surprise to many as it seemed Apple would approve the App. All things Digital states;
“Apple and Steve Jobs had made a point of reaching out to Time Inc. executives and editors before the iPad’s launch, and encouraged them to build digital editions for the platform.
And Time Inc. executives tell me they had been communicating with Apple throughout the spring as they developed their subscription plans, and had been told that Apple approved.”
So what happened? Noone seems to know a clear reason as to the apparent u-turn, however there are many suspicions and theories going around. CrunchGear reports;
“Did Steve Jobs have a change of heart, and if so, why? Does he want to do to the magazine and newspaper industry—which is falling over itself trying to figure out the next play—what he did to the music industry? (Control it, essentially.) Did Apple simply want a bigger cut of Time’s digital revenue? It’s a mystery, especially when you consider that Apple has deals with News Corp. and Amazon that aren’t too dissimilar from what Time wants.”
Time Inc have not yet released further details except for this, their official statement: “We are working with a number of partners and potential partners and hope to offer in-app subscriptions some time later this year.”
Apple’s official statement is “We have two platforms that we support for apps of all types, including magazines: HTML5 provides an open platform for developers to create and distribute whatever they want, and the App Store which is a curated platform offering customers the largest offering of apps for any mobile device with over 225,000 apps and 5 billion downloads.”
Is it case of Apple’s way or no way?
