Quote:
Originally Posted by susan_cassidy
The article on roughlydrafted.com said: "But Apple isn’t just shipping; it’s also servicing the subscription, from handing the sale to fulfilling the order throughout its duration. ". But normally, content for subscriptions is, I believe (just like Kindle books) delivered via wi-fi, from the producer direct to the device, and Apple has nothing to do with it. I'm not sure why they think that Apple has to do anything to provide the content we are talking about.
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We're still waiting for clarification.
Stripping away the media buzz and reading the Apple comments this is only definitely a 30% charge on subscription content paid for through an iOS app. There's no confirmation that this will apply to non-subscription content. If that is so then Apple is charging 30% of cover price for handling all the subscriber side of the deal, including charges, renewal tracking and refunds.
So, definitely providing a service there, but one that Google believes it can provide for just 10% of the cover price, without the restrictions that Apple is imposing, and with the service as an option rather than a mandatory requirement.
On top of Apple's 30%, the thing that's irking many subscription service providers is that a customer would have to specifically opt in to having their details shared with the publisher - a thing that doubtless a significant percentage would refuse to do - so that a) publishers would not have the marketing data they rely on to promote their products, and b) they'd find it harder to promote services that included the iOS app in a wider package (e.g. print and digital).
Publishers of print content may be able to absorb this 30% as the Apple platform will be bringing in more subscribers, and their margins would typically include a fair chunk for the distributor. But services that stream other digital content such as music and video are already paying royalties and their margins are much lower. For them, this subscription move makes them far less able to compete with iTunes, and may wipe them off the iOS board completely. Legal action may or may not come to their aid there; it seems to boil down to whether the the competition laws would apply to Apple's platform in isolation or the platform considered in the market of all other competing platforms.
Graham