Apple's subscription plan launched

Apple has launched a new subscription plan for its App Store that is modeled off one used with the app 99-cent-per-week iPad, The Daily. The plan is designed to simplify in-app purchases, and while license gives publishers and developers to market their goods outside the App Store, imposes some restrictions which may discourage some big companies like Netflix and Amazon from participation.

Here's a look at the subscription policies of App Store:

Price and duration of subscription: Publishers can set their subscriptions to be weekly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or yearly. How to subscribe to a periodical, the customer pays in advance for the duration of the subscription. Subscriptions are handled through the user's iTunes account.

Privacy

Apple leaves the burden of privacy to the Publisher. Any information provided through the App Store are sent directly to the Publisher and under the auspices of privacy, not Apple's policy of the Publisher. Apple requires that customers have a "clear" choice about sharing information and who need to be aware that "all supplementary information will be handled under the privacy policy of the Publisher, rather than Apple."

Billing

The same system used for billing, applications, and in-app purchases will serve for the subscription service. In most cases, Apple will take 30% of the profits. However, publishers can market and sell their app subscriptions outside of App Store-on company Web sites, for example-and may even waive fees for existing subscribers. When this occurs, there is no exchange of customer information and "... the Publisher retains 100% [profit] and Apple earns nothing," Steve Jobs wrote in the press release. Subscriptions to out-of-app must be offered within the app as well, for the same price or less.

Here is where it gets tricky: Apple nixed the Publisher's ability to send to users outside of the app to purchase content or subscriptions, and made it clear that newspapers and magazines are not the only Medium targeted-video and music services are as well. Amazon's Kindle app sends users to the mobile version of the Kindle Store site for shopping-a strategy that must change if Amazon plans on doing future business with Apple. It also may mean that other services, like Rhapsody, Spotify, Netflix and Hulu Plus, he'll lose 30 percent of sales in-app or divert.

Move to another platform, such as Android, seems not to be a sustainable economic decision, though, since Apple still dominates the growing Tablet market. Jesus Diaz at Gizmodo postulated that some may feel the urge to charge users more iOS to compensate for the loss of 30%-that would obviously angry consumer.

Another question: is this the same plane to Mac OSX App Store?

New subscription plans for Apple: 5 services that might get screwed

Although the new approach Apple subscriptions on the iPhone and iPad is apparently intended to publishers of newspapers and magazines will also effect non-publication apps.

All subscription-based applications will soon be required to provide in-app purchases, with a cut of 30 per cent going to Apple. This means that profit margins for Internet services will get lighter as consumers are enticed to get their subscriptions directly via the iOS. John Paczkowski at all things d notes that these applications have until 30 June to provide a mechanism for in-app purchasing and, although they still can allow subscriptions outside of the app, the prices within iOS must be equal or better.

Here are five services that may be affected by the change of the policy:

Hulu

Hulu charges $ 8 per month for his Hulu Plus service, extending access video streaming for the iPhone and iPad, among other devices. But Hulu has also to pay for content makes available, and that might be difficult if subscriptions coming through iOS result $ 2.40 less revenue per user, per month. My prediction: Hulu Plus users will be treated to more ads on iOS devices to make up for Apple to cut.

NetFlix

As Hulu, Netflix charges $ 8 per month for a plan of video streaming that excludes DVD mail-order. However, I'm guessing that the impact of Apple's policy on the Netflix subscription will not be immediate as a cause of enormous subscriber base and plenty of other devices that support streaming of Netflix. Prediction of the worst-case scenario: Netflix removes its apps iOS as a kind of power play.

Kindle/Nook/Kobo

Apple's policy also States that apps cannot include links that allow the customer to buy content or subscriptions outside of the application ". This means e-book apps like Kindle from Amazon and Barnes & Noble's Nook will have to sell their products in terms of Apple. If these services would remain on iOS devices without destroying your profits will increase prices of electronic paper.

MOG/Napster/Rdio/Rhapsody

All three music subscription services listed above charged $ 10 per month for unlimited music streaming, on demand of smartphones, while comparable services on your PC will cost only $ 5 per month. Why the discrepancy? Playback on mobile phones requires additional license costs. Although I do not know how much money these services make per subscriber, I hope it is more than $ 3. Otherwise, cutting 30 percent of Apple will wipe out profits for these services, could lead to price hikes for new subscribers.

Dropbox/Box.net/SugarSync/etc.

There is no shortage of online storage services, clamoring for your business with iOS apps, all with different pricing models. Expect the reaction is different for each service, but those who need to modify their may use a combination of higher prices, lower monthly limits or file size restrictions.

Jared blogs for today @ PC World from Los Angeles. Say hi on Twitter.

Remains of the Day: subscription Dance

Look, there, up in the air: it's a bird, it's a plane, it's good, it's me on an airplane. Yes, this installment comes to you from high above the State of Michigan--this is now the State of technology. But I think the "most amazing it will be when the MacBook have 3 G, iOS apps have subscriptions and AT&T admits that the Verizon iPhone is a good thing. In fact, if the remains for Tuesday, February 15, 2011 are any indication, you couldn't wait very long at all.

Apple customer survey sparks hope for brawnier MacBook Airs with built-in 3 G(AppleInsider)

As they say in Latin: surveyo, veritas. Well, maybe it's a bit loud "truth". A recent customer survey--which Apple occasionally runs on his site--asking a series of questions relating to the MacBook and 3 G data connections are presumed. A prodigy of things to come? Please refer to the previous survey of Apple, which bring customers the important question: "what would you do for a Klondike bar?"

June 30 Deadline for subscriptions to Apple(All things D)

No doubt you've already heard of the new subscription plan from Apple, but the company was Matera on exactly when all this magic Subscriber will take place. However, according to an alleged leaked memo, Apple wants publishers on board by 30 June 2011. What happens after that? All I can tell you is that it brings new meaning to "publish or perish".

iBook 1.2.1 finds some Jailbreaks, disable iBookstore purchases in response(Mac Rumors)

Apparently, jailbreaking your iPhone will lose, provides access to all e-Book that you bought from the iBookstore. Holy cow! As you will never find a way aroun--never mind.

At&T CEO says industry earnings lost IPhone Hold(BusinessWeek)

Brace yourself: AT&T CEO "Macho Man" Randall Stephenson said in an interview that Verizon iPhone will help the industry. Whaaaaaaaaaa? According to Stephenson, that is why the launch promotion is free for the iPhone. Sooooo, good for AT&T, right? That sounds more like Randall Stephenson we know.

For other Macintosh computing news, visit Macworld. Story copyright © 2010 Mac Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.

New subscription model of Apple: the advantages and disadvantages

Apple recently said it wants a cut of 30 per cent of all subscriptions sold on iOS devices, including services that offer music, video, newspapers and magazines. But go Apple cannot make digital publishers and content providers such as Amazon, Netflix and Hulu think long and hard to continue to offer apps for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

Music subscription service Rhapsody has already vowed to fight, arguing that cut 30% of Apple would make iOS apps to Rhapsody "economically unsustainable". "We will collaborate with our peers in the market to determine a proper legal and working on this latest evolution," the company said in a statement.

Apple's new policy

Under the new in-app subscription model Apple announced Tuesday, all companies that offer content subscriptions on iOS apps should use the new subscription service from Apple. This means that Apple Gets a cut of 30 per cent of all subscription transactions that occur on a device of iOS.

As a trade off, digital publishers can still deliver content within an application of iOS existing subscribers free of charge as long as they also offer a "subscribe" button within the application of iOS.

But the part that has the potential to disrupt digital publishers is that all links to make purchases outside an app iOS must be removed. This means that links such as "Shop in Kindle store" button on Amazon, which starts from the Kindle app and mobile Safari for the purchase of books, can be removed.

What are the implications for the new mandatory subscription model of Apple? Let's take a look.

Easy to buy

For the average user of iOS, new model of Apple's subscription will allow you to purchase a subscription within your favorite applications with a few clicks. You won't have to worry about entering your credit card information, or by filling out a form on a screen of the iPhone since Apple has already cramped all your information.

Seamless experience

Although buy Kindle e-book on a device iOS is a pretty good experience, is quite a bit of a hassle. You have to go to the Amazon site, buy your book, and then reopen the Kindle app and go to the store to download the new element. Of course, purchase a book of Kindle is relatively easy once you get the hang of the system, but is far from a perfect experience.

Compare buying a Kindle book with getting a comic on Comixology iOS app. Let's say you want to buy an issue of The Green Hornet. All you do is hit the link buying, enter your account password and the Apple begins downloading. Two steps instead of four.

Apple "Blowing it" with the key for subscription App, analyst says

We know that the subscription application for Apple mobile devices is unpopular with publishers, but now CEO of analyst firm Forrester is overview too.

In a blog post on the official website of Forrester CEO George Colony suggests that Apple is letting the success of its iPhone and iPad devices go to his head and that there is a risk of massive hubris if it does not reduce drastically the subscription fees that charge publishers.

BACKGROUND: EU publishers blast Apple iPad subscription plan

Competition: Google payment system for publishers on Apple's competitors

Apple caused a furore among publishers and developers this week when it announced that it would be held 30% of all revenue generated from subscription sales through the iTunes Store. Publishers can still sell their subscription-based content for the iPhone and iPad regardless of Apple, but they are not permitted to undercut the price that Apple showed up on the iTunes store.

Cologne thinks that Apple is wildly overestimate the pricing of content to mobile devices and says that the correct fee for the subscription-based applications should be about 5%, or a sixth of what Apple plans to charge publishers. By charging them high subscription fees for access to the iTunes Store, Apple risks developers guide into the arms of rival mobile operating system Android, Cologne supports.

"Apple blows it," he writes bluntly. "Threatens the PC wars of the early eighties when Microsoft accepted all over their world development while Apple remained «pure» and frightened by his allies … playing this time around Apple's hostile position could result in a market of 2014 Internet that seems App something like this: 80% 10 Android, Apple, 10% other."

Mobile applications have become an increasingly popular feature of Smartphones over the past two years, especially with the high profile launch of shopping malls in application such as Apple's App Store and Google Android Market. The latest survey data from research firm ChangeWave shows that 14% of smartphone users said that applications were what they liked better than new smartphones, followed by the ease of use (12%) and Internet access (12%). In addition, a recent survey by Forrester showed that 45% of users of Tablet PCs that spend about the same time using mobile applications as they spend on a web browser, with 39% saying they spend more time on most browser applications.

Research in Motion, which traditionally has been much more selective in applications that allows its BlackBerry devices, apparently is considering whether to allow its upcoming Tablet run PlayBook applications designed for the Google Android platform. If the Android App market is used on edge devices, could give Android a boost in its efforts to get developers to spend more time developing for Android, rather than the iPhone.

Read more about anti-malware in anti-malware Network worldwide.

For more information on the corporate network, go to NetworkWorld. Story copyright 2010 Network World Inc. All rights reserved.

Apple's subscription plan: time for a work stoppage of app

Subscription plan of Apple executives had a bevy of media in a tizzy and many were still trying to figure out the new App Store new deal. But these types of media they were sure Apple's new deal was not good.

The fuss was raised above the next step in Apple's statement:

Publishers that use the Apple subscription service in their application may use other methods for capturing digital subscribers outside of the app. For example, publishers can sell digital subscriptions on their websites, or may choose to provide free access for existing subscribers. Because Apple is not involved in these transactions, there is no revenue sharing or Exchange customer information with Apple. Publishers must provide authentication process within your application for Subscribers who joined outside of the app. However, Apple requires that if a publisher decides to sell a digital subscription separately outside the application, offering the same subscription must be made available, at the same price or less, customers wishing to subscribe within the application. In addition, publishers cannot provide links in their applications (to a website, for example) that allow the customer to buy content or subscriptions outside of the app.

In a nutshell, Apple wants a cut of 30 per cent in-app purchases. If you are a publisher of movies or music, this might be a big problem. First, companies like Netflix and Rhapsody charge content owners and then another cut Apple pay for the privilege of being in the App Store.

Here is a look at some of the spill:

At first glance, this is exactly what I was fearing a lot of publishers: Apple itself as a toll approach of interest on the road of orgs news for a new business model. (Excuse the metaphor). For publishers who were counting on a new race of Tablet PC revenue to support a model of the press in late, it is disappointing to learn that, in return for the convenience of a "buy" button in their iPad app, you have to give up to 30 percent of the revenue it generates.

Rest assured that the dismay over new rules of Apple is just beginning. However, let's say Hulu, Netflix, the New York Times and a few others, saying Sirius XM, all pull their apps on Apple in-app switch. Apple will listen. Blocks, this move may be risky for publishers because iPad is the only game in town for now. But if enough large content providers, and subscription pulled the plug on the App Store and supported Android, Apple move could backfire.

It seems that Apple has all the lever, but that's not really the case. If there is an interruption of work, loss of Apple app could be Android's gain.

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic.

Subscription policy of Apple convinced me to sell my iPad

I like Apple products, but I don't patronize exclusively to them. I am a firm believer in embracing the technology that does what I need, and I would like to distribute my money around to keep things too. I bought an iPad when it was released as I knew that fits my needs. Late last year I grabbed a small tablet which has better fit my lifestyle, and even if iPad is used less frequently, I hesitated to sell it because I like. That changed today with the new Apple's policy for subscriptions, as I have no desire to give Apple 30% of these fees in Cupertino. My iPad is now on sale.

I won't rehash of politics, as you can find around the web, but in a nutshell the Apple is forcing all companies who sell subscriptions on iOS devices to give them 30% of the spoils. Which is important since subscriptions are not the same as selling app, are ongoing and often auto-renewed when the subscription period ends. This means that Apple can get a healthy tax cut of every company ad infinitum.

I like good software, services and content in subscription and enjoy rewarding companies that produce them with my subscription cash. I have a real problem with a company that is simply providing a vehicle for content to take a reduction that is healthy and deny alternative methods to sell the content providers.

Pay for my subscription for Pandora music because it's a great service, because it is not available on iPad. Listen to it everywhere, on all my mobile devices. The same goes for my library of Kindle ebook, buy it because I can read it on anything. I will give Apple 30% of the cost of these ebooks.

So Apple convinced me to sell my iPad, I will do just that. I won't miss it, the control that Apple is putting on partner (and partners) made up my mind. I won't be getting an iPad 2, either. I still have some Apple products, but only those that I need to get the job done.

James Kendrick has been using mobile devices since they weighed 30 lbs and has shared his insights on mobile technology for nearly that long.