Apple charging 30% for digital subscriptions!

Ouch. I’m guessing that the STW mag app is going to be withdrawn unless they want to donate 30% of the subscription price to Mr Jobs and co.

I quite like mac stuff (have an iPhone and am typing this in OSX) but this is a completely idiotic idea. How do they think that small companies such as STW can afford to hand over such a sum?
Jobs: your company may have some great ideas but his really aint one of them.

And how do the likes of Spotify, Grooveshark, etc. get around this? The mind boggles. Do Apple really need any more income?

If you want a real shock look at the market share Vs profit for the likes of the iphone in the mobile market!

Are you surprised? Most Apple users won’t care a stuff as long as they get their thing they are wanting…some of them might have an inkling but the vast majority won’t give a monkeys…unless they have the actually take the hit and pay extra to cover this hike.

Plenty of alternatives around (I’m not about to start an Apple rant) but I guess the Apple model is just one example of how it can be – they have a pretty captive audience so if you want to compete in this area then you (the provider) need to accept the hit.

It isn’t like Android as if the kit doesn’t work, it isn’t allowed on the Apple Appstore, whereas the Android model isn’t quite to robust for testing (but I have found through searching that there are a lot more free things on Android) – user decides…if the Apple way is how they want to go then so be it…but the providers of these apps/services are going to feel a wee pinch with this 30% cut (although in a lot of case, the provider is making a small fortune – but that totally depends on how many people download the app and stuff so it isn’t the same for every provider).

Google have announced a similar model but only taking 10% cut…which is probably going to attract more providers and encourage the existing providers to stay.

DB: the 30% share to Apple is just for subscription publications (so newspapers and magazines), not apps. Apple [almost] created a market and now they’re cashing in… big time!
Who would pay an extra 30% for the iPad version of ST? Even if I had an iPad I wouldn’t.
I guess their particular solution is to ditch the app and settle for supplying the mag in just PDF format that can be read on many devices.

Sorry…my terminology is screwed…it’s all a similar thing i.e. it gets served up via Apple’s system to the punter…but the end user isn’t going to notice this extra ‘charge’ unless it is passed on to them or their publication/app is no longer available.

I don’t get why you would want a dedicated st app on an iPad anyway? Just get the digital sub, download the PDF and drag it into iTunes, it then appears in iBooks, simples!

With a dedicated ST app they could make the mag more digital content rich, put direct links to suppliers of review kit. It would be quite cool 30% more cool personally I don’t think so.

PDF’s have interactive hyperlinks now though – you need to include the URL but it does it right away…so no real benefit…is there?

By more Digital content rich I mean that aesthetically the mag would look and flow better. eg videos that play in the mag rather than in another page / window. Don’t get me wrong PDFs are awesome truly universal viewing without proprietary apps or software. I have read some of these enhance digital mags and they are much more interactive.

By more Digital content rich I mean that aesthetically the mag would look and flow better. eg videos that play in the mag rather than in another page / window. Don’t get me wrong PDFs are awesome truly universal viewing without proprietary apps or software. I have read some of these enhance digital mags and they are much more interactive.

They might be better, but they’d be limited to iPad – at the moment it might have most of the market, but if I ran a small business I wouldn’t want to invest loads of cash in a digital iPad edition with all the other tablets that are starting to be released.

I totally agree with that argument for a small business, there may also be other tablet devices coming to market but apple do always tend to corner a larger market share in this area ad they have made apps available to Mac, ipads and iphones now.

Seems perfectly reasonable to me, Apple created a market and now charge for access to that market – they are not a charity.

No one is forced to offer subscriptions via iPhone Apps….

I don’t think anyone will be charging a 30% premium. I think apple are insisting that you can’t get the subscription anywhere cheaper.

Anyway, 30% fee for distribution doesn’t seem that steep. What’s the equivalent print fee for distribution?

Just ditched my mobile me account; they wanted 60 notes for an email account. Have found the other functions useless so bye bye .mac

Despite loving osx, I don’t think any of their products justify the premium anymore.

Rumours are that MobileMe will be free soon.

Google must be laughing – they are already in front of Apple in terms of smartphone market share and 10% of everything is going to be a lot more than 30% of a niche ( see also Laffer Curve ).