Apple launches subscriptions in-app ~ New1Mobile9

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Apple launches subscriptions in-app

2/16/2011

New1Mobile9

It is no surprise: Apple has officially yesterday the establishment of a subscription service for application developers. The principle is simple: the developers who wish to deliver content to their regular users will be able to pay them a subscription for a period ranging from one week to one year. An important new freedom is left to the publishers about the price of this subscription. Indeed, it will not Apple fix prices, but the publishers themselves.But the news does not mean unanimity. Because if Apple wants to be more flexible on price, the firm is not about 30% of her income on each transaction. A percentage already practiced on all applications sold on the AppStore, but many publishers consider too high. They can offer their users to register through an external interface to the application (a web page, for example), and then will not pay this commission to Apple. But for the user, being able to buy it directly from the application will no doubt be much more attractive, and publishers will certainly have a hard time convincing their clients to register from their browser rather than from their iDevice.

Another important point highlighted by the fact that Apple is the user's personal data will be stored by the publisher and not by Apple. The user may choose to share or not with Apple. It seems that the side of Cupertino, we put a point of honor not to jeopardize the security of this data.
It will be very interesting to observe the reaction of developers in the coming weeks. One thinks especially of course to press groups, which should seek by every means to circumvent the system.And already, some denounce an abuse of dominance by Apple.