Apple announced on Tuesday a new subscription service for publishers of content-based apps such as magazines, videos, music and newspapers. As stated in the press release, subscriptions will be purchased using the same billing system currently used to purchase apps in the App Store.
Publishers will be able to set the price and length of subscription, which can be weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly or yearly. Then with one click, customers select the length of their subscription and are immediately charged for it. Customers can also easily manage or cancel their current subscriptions from their personal account page.
“Our philosophy is simple—when Apple brings a new subscriber to the app, Apple earns a 30 percent share; when the publisher brings an existing or new subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100 percent and Apple earns nothing,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrote in his statement. “All we require is that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app, so that customers can easily subscribe with one-click right in the app.”
Publishers can still sell content using other methods outside of the apps, such as their websites, and keep all 100% of profits. However, Apple is requiring that they make the same content available for purchase from within the app at the same or lower price. Additionally, publishers are no longer allowed to provide links in their apps to their websites and in that way enable customers to purchase content or subscriptions outside of the app.
With its new subscription model, Apple is enabling customers to decide whether or not they want to provide their personal information (name, email address, and zipcode) to the publishers when they subscribe. The use of that information will then be handled under the publisher’s private policy rather than Apple’s.
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