In an ironic twist, Apple is preparing to co-host unveiling an iPad-only newspaper that could save publishers, while also releasing guidelines limiting publishers’ app subscription options. The Cupertino, Calif. tech giant – which owns iTunes App Stores for the iPod, iPhone, iPad and Mac – is telling publishers to stop circumventing paying Apple’s 30 percent cut on sales.
The requirement to begin March 31 – which Apple spokespeople stress is not new – forbids companies such as Sony, Amazon and presumably others with ebook reader apps – from only initiating book sales outside the iTunes ecosystem. Others, such as the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times also offer apps but use only private billing systems.
Yudu, an ebook publisher based in the UK, although contacted by Apple, has complied with the requirement, according to Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal. In response to the hue-and-cry, an Apple spokesperson confirmed the action.
“We are now requiring that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app with in-app purchase,” spokesperson Trudy Miller, told a Mac news site.
Some observers see Murdoch’s iPad-only The Daily as possibly Apple’s last chance to get the subscription model right. If the e-mails being sent to publishers are any indication, the Cupertino, Calif. company has shot itself in the foot, again.
