NYT: Apple Moves to Tighten Control of App Store

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by tomsem

But really, Apple: why put us all through this? Everybody is happy with the way it has been, you won't generate a dime more revenue from enforcing this policy, and on the contrary will sow a lot of distrust and angst and defection to competing platforms.

I don't think Apple would do this unless it thought it could make plenty of money. Maybe it will. Hard to say with so many variables among customers and content providers, so many scenarios. Given a choice to buy inside or outside an app, people probably will go with the more convenient option. I think 30 percent is very stiff, though, especially with thin margins on book sales for a provider like Amazon.

Apple has a big customer base to leverage, though:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/business/30unbox.html

[DiapDealer]

Science Fiction author Tobias Buckell's take on the situation. Caution, there is some profanity... there's usually profanity when Tobias speaks.

[carld]

I read the first paragraph, and that was enough for me.

[petermillard]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Science Fiction author Tobias Buckell's take on the situation. Caution, there is some profanity... there's usually profanity when Tobias speaks.

Great piece, thanks for posting the link. Must admit, I hadn't thought of this as a scenario...

If Apple and Amazon do showdown over this, Amazon might buckle. They’ll probably do the following: give 70% royalties to the author/publisher for sales from Amazon’s website and 40% to the author/publisher if it’s via in-app purchasing.

...but I could see it happening.

Cheers, Pete

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by petermillard

Great piece, thanks for posting the link. Must admit, I hadn't thought of this as a scenario...



...but I could see it happening.

Cheers, Pete

I don't get where or why Bucknell thinks Apple could be 50 percent of Amazon's ebook business. I'm not saying it is or isn't true, just that it is probably pulled out of thin air.

I'm guessing that Amazon actually sells a higher number of books to actual kindle owners, especially since Kindle came down in price. Sure, people read on their iPhone or IPad or IPod...but they can read on blackberry and Android too. And if it's cross-platform reading both companies will lose if and when Apple starts making restrictions or trying to take a cut. Amazon will have to make up the revenue somewhere (and likely it will come out of the author's pocket).

Ick. Apple is breaking something that didn't need fixing.

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by athlonkmf

Why is everybody so pessimistic?

Because it's Apple.

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by Graham

Exactly. Amazon DRM-free from January 2008, Apple DRM-free from January 2009, Napster DRM-free from June 2009.

It was Steves letter that put the ! on the matter for the industry, not Bezos. It was contractural issues, not ideology or love of consumers that got Amazon there first.

Feb 6th 2007:

Steve did what any good citizen would do: he wrote a letter. In it he reviews the three possible roads ahead for DRM: what we're doing now (using it), what happens if Apple licenses FairPlay (not much good), and what happens if DRM vanishes entirely ("clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat."). It's pretty easy to tell where Steve stands on the matter

http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/06/a...get-rid-of-it/

[RockdaMan]

Today’s episode in the continuing saga of “Apple’s evil” is the rejection of Sony eReader app from the App Store. This controversy, too, boils down to: “Why doesn’t Apple just publish a clear declaration of what it will and won’t allow in the App Store.” The subterranean accusation here is that Apple is arbitrary, capricious and abusive of its ecosystem partners.

For any single iOS developer or company, it would certainly be best if everything was spelled out and stayed unchanged. Unfortunately, while Apple is the largest technology company in the world and one of the most nimble, it can’t foresee everything.
--
Strategically, however, all the App Store controversy to date has not dampened the enthusiasm of app submissions or iOS device sales, which Apple can’t manufacture enough of. Digiterati teeth gnashing hasn’t been reflected in actual sales figures appreciably.

http://counternotions.com/2011/02/02/ereader/

[ivers]

Originally Posted by petermillard

Great piece, thanks for posting the link. Must admit, I hadn't thought of this as a scenario...



...but I could see it happening.

Cheers, Pete

Amazon cannot do that with any books from the Agency 5 publishers (5 of the 6 big publishing houses). The Agency Pricing contracts require that publishers get 70%.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I don't get where or why Bucknell thinks Apple could be 50 percent of Amazon's ebook business. I'm not saying it is or isn't true, just that it is probably pulled out of thin air.

I'm guessing that Amazon actually sells a higher number of books to actual kindle owners, especially since Kindle came down in price. Sure, people read on their iPhone or IPad or IPod...but they can read on blackberry and Android too. And if it's cross-platform reading both companies will lose if and when Apple starts making restrictions or trying to take a cut. Amazon will have to make up the revenue somewhere (and likely it will come out of the author's pocket).

Ick. Apple is breaking something that didn't need fixing.

It's pulled out of air. Amazon has stated before that 20% of its sales come through non-Kindle sources (i.e., people using K4PC or various apps). I would suspect that a majority of these sales do come from an iPhone or iPad app. But that's nowhere near 50%.

[pshrynk]

Well, I went to Stanza a few days ago and bought some books, and went to Amazon last night and bought some books, and went to B&N yesterday morning and bought some books... you get the picture. I'm pretty sure that all of this tempest in a teapot is just two control freak companies tossing press releases at one another and does not, in fact, represent the End of Civilization As We Know It.

[elcreative]

The sky is falling... the sky is falling... oh no, it's MobileRead hysteria again... a press release, a rumour, a rumour and a press release... a blog based on a rumour then another based on a press release, exaggerated and repeated then quoted as fact and...

Originally Posted by pshrynk

Well, I went to Stanza a few days ago and bought some books, and went to Amazon last night and bought some books, and went to B&N yesterday morning and bought some books... you get the picture. I'm pretty sure that all of this tempest in a teapot is just two control freak companies tossing press releases at one another and does not, in fact, represent the End of Civilization As We Know It.

[RockdaMan]

An interesting editorial from a iOS developer.

I wasn’t always a fan of Apple’s requirement that all App Store submissions be reviewed by a fairly opaque process before release, which often led to confusing or unfair rejections.

But over the last year, I’ve grown to appreciate app review and the immense staff it must take to operate at its scale. We usually only see inflammatory blog posts and news articles about app review’s failures, while almost nobody ever mention its benefits. So I’m going to start.

http://www.marco.org/3100131471

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

It's pulled out of air. Amazon has stated before that 20% of its sales come through non-Kindle sources (i.e., people using K4PC or various apps). I would suspect that a majority of these sales do come from an iPhone or iPad app. But that's nowhere near 50%.

Thanks. I thought 50 percent sounded high, but I didn't have anything to back that up so rather than just pull a number of my own out of thin air...

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by pshrynk

Well, I went to Stanza a few days ago and bought some books, and went to Amazon last night and bought some books, and went to B&N yesterday morning and bought some books... you get the picture. I'm pretty sure that all of this tempest in a teapot is just two control freak companies tossing press releases at one another and does not, in fact, represent the End of Civilization As We Know It.

Not the end of civilization, of course. I'm still buying books and enjoying my iPad. Given Apple's course and increasing Android alternatives, I just won't buy more iDevices.

For me, reading is what counts. Tech is just a tool. With or without Apple devices, I'll keep reading till I croak.