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Originally Posted by fbrII
Murray,
I am not trying to be argumentative and I appreciate your patience, but I can't buy into the logic. I'm not sure why Apple would think that the subscription market is larger than the book market. More lucrative? If anybody is having bigger problems than book publishers then magazine and newspaper companies would most likely be on that list.
If Apple insists the only way to solve this problem is to make people go through their store, why charge them a 30% surcharge in order to route the purchase through the store - for their maintenance costs?
I don't doubt Apple would like to sell magazines as well as books as well as consumer goods if they could. But this was the best solution to their problem and this is being done keeping their customers interests in mind?
I'm sorry but I will have to remain a skeptic.
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Apple is in business to make money. Its not there to be a free pipe for others to sell and deliver media content. Apple with its record smashing new device, created a whole new market for media companies . It has a right to extract a toll for those who want access to this market. If you can't pay the toll or play by its rules, then its up to you to create your own market. One analyst sees it this way:
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We use the metaphor of an ecosystem a lot these days when discussing technology and media — too often, probably, without thinking — but in this case, it’s remarkably apt:
The emergence of the iPad, with its big screen, ease of use and customers ready and willing to pay for content, is like a new food source. The animals flock to it. Dominant species stake their positions, and new ones emerge.
But it turns out that this new food source has also helped spawned a new predator that partially defends it. That’s Apple’s in-app purchasing rules. For a brief time it looked like the predator would wipe out a huge swath of the other species, but now they’ve struck an uneasy balance.
Now all the species are swiftly adapting to the new environment. It won’t take long to see which adaptations turn out to be most advantageous in the near-future, but their long-term effects will probably still be unknown for years to come.
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LINK
Read the whole thing. People are in fact adapting to the new rules.
Now you may not like that Apple charge magazines 30 per cent to access to the market created by Ios, but its really a business decision. Some mags have signed up with Apple, others side-stepped Apple by creating web apps, and others have partnered up with Amazon and B&N on one hand, and Flipboard on another. We will see what strategies work.
As for ebooks, you should always remember that on day one of the Ipad's launch there was only ONE bookstore app in the App Store-Ibooks. It was only AFTER the Ipad proved a smashing success that the other booksellers came in. They weren't as altruistic as you all seem to believe. Now that they're in, its clear they WANT to stay in , even if it means dancing to Apple's tune.