15 Feb 2011
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,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “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. We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers.
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As long as consumers continue to snap up iPhones and iPads Jobs will keep pushing all his complementors. The other platforms just don’t have the same magnitude, so he has the edge.
The question is, at what point to do all the complementors decide Apple’s platform just isn’t worth it at any market share?
We’ll probably see some big developers/content producers working more closely with Google on Android and perhaps with Windows Mobile too. Together they have to do something to mitigate the switching cost of moving users over. Right now that cost is pretty high, not least of all because of Apple’s App advantage.
One way to do it would be to allow users who have already purchased an app with Apple to download the same app on another platform for free, or use the rest of their subscription on another platform.
Steve Jobs Responds To All The Cry-Baby Publishers About Apple’s Subscription Payments
Going to be a fun year.
(via evangotlib)
