Well, look at that. Apple announced App Store subscriptions earlier today and, contrary to recent speculation, iPad magazines using the new billing system are already showing up in the App Store, before the public release of iOS 4.3. As noted by WSJ and AdAge, Elle and Popular Science are the first apps to come with the new Apple subscriptions, which rely on weekly / monthly / yearly payments and give customers the possibility to decide whether a publisher may access personal information like email and ZIP code or not. Read more
Posts tagged with "apple"
iPad Magazines With Subscriptions Start Showing Up in the App Store
Publishers To Implement Subscriptions by June 30?
Following this morning’s news that Apple is officially launching App Store subscriptions for all developers, All Things Digital reports that a memo sent to publishers earlier this year indicates a June 30 deadline for developers to implement subscriptions in their content-based apps:
For existing apps already in the App Store, we are providing a grace period to bring your app into compliance with this guideline,” it reads. “To ensure your app remains on the App Store, please submit an update that uses the In App Purchase API for purchasing content, by June 30, 2011.
As John Paczkowski notes, this leaves 4 months to services like Hulu and Netflix to rebuild their apps to follow Apple’s rules and implement the new iOS subscriptions at the same price (or less) for all customers. Similar rules seem to apply to ebook reading applications: developers will need to update the apps to integrate Apple’s in-app purchases, where Apple takes its usual 30% cut. It is unclear, however, whether the memo refers to in-app purchases for single downloads (example: books in the Amazon Kindle books) or recurring subscriptions announced earlier today.
MobileMe Music Streaming: Keep It Simple
According to recent speculation, Apple is launching a complete overhaul of MobileMe this summer that will include a streaming option for media like music, movies, photos and videos recorded through an iPhone. Steve Jobs himself said in an email from last year that MobileMe would get “a lot better” in 2011. The fact that Apple is working on making MobileMe free in more sections, and more powerful and feature-rich when it comes to cloud-based access to files and media, seems pretty much obvious at this point.
The problem is “how”. With the rumors floating around, all kinds of speculation have arisen lately: cloud storage for your entire iTunes library, through a subscription à la Dropbox; cloud storage through the existing MobileMe plans; cloud storage for free. The list of possible implementations goes on and on. Yesterday, The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple weighed in with an interesting theory about a user’s Mac as a the actual cloud behind MobileMe’s streaming:
Instead of trying to provide everyone with cloud storage, I believe Apple will use MobileMe as the brain of the cloud service. The actual storage will be on our individual machines. In effect, in the cloud.
MobileMe would handle the settings and streaming settings, the files would reside on our Macs. Jim further explains:
Here’s the thing — those songs won’t actually be on my iPhone until I tap to play them. As soon as I tap to play, it will download to my phone. You can scroll through your music library and choose something else and it will download and play.
In effect, what Apple’s doing is setting up a streaming service that you host. By using advanced caching and MobileMe as the brain behind the operation, you will always have access to your media.
Apple Launches Subscriptions for Apps
It’s official: Apple has announced subscription for App Store apps. Billing happens automatically through your iTunes account, and Apple keeps 30% of revenue if they bring a new subscriber to the app. If the publisher brings a new or existing subscriber to the app, the publisher keeps 100%. Publishers can provide alternative payment methods (outside of the app) and login systems for existing subscribers, but iTunes subscriptions must be offered as an option into the app at the same price or less. Plus, publishers can no longer insert links to external payment methods inside their apps. Here’s the gist:
Publishers who use Apple’s subscription service in their app can also leverage other methods for acquiring digital subscribers outside of the app. For example, publishers can sell digital subscriptions on their web sites, or can choose to provide free access to existing subscribers. Since Apple is not involved in these transactions, there is no revenue sharing or exchange of customer information with Apple. Publishers must provide their own authentication process inside the app for subscribers that have signed up outside of the app. However, Apple does require that if a publisher chooses to sell a digital subscription separately outside of the app, that same subscription offer must be made available, at the same price or less, to customers who wish to subscribe from within the app. In addition, publishers may no longer provide links in their apps (to a web site, for example) which allow the customer to purchase content or subscriptions outside of the app.
As for privacy policy, customers “will be given the option” to provide publishers with information, although the use of information will be under the publisher’s privacy policy. Here’s everything you need to know about subscriptions. Press release embedded below.
Portal 2 Available For Pre-Order Now
Well after some delays, Portal 2 is now finally available for pre-order for an expected release of April 18th. Mac users can pre-order the game for US$44.99 on Steam or at selected retail shops, some of which have special pre-order offers;
Special pre-order offers vary at participating outlets around the world and include a variety of dollars off and/or exclusive in-game content for those who reserve the game for purchase before it is released the week of April 18. These include $5 off the full price, exclusive in-game skins for the coop bots (Atlas and P-body), and more.
Apple’s Market Cap Rises $100 Billion Above Microsoft’s
At the close of trading today Apple managed to reach a market cap of $330.90 billion, a full $100 billion more than the nearest technology company, Microsoft, which is at $228.8 billion. This is despite Apple only passing Microsoft in market cap less then nine months ago, since then Microsoft has only gained $1 billion.
Apple’s Supplier Responsibility Report Updated with 2010 Data
Apple has posted an update to its supplier responsibility document that it has been publishing since 2007 with details of its improvements in 2010 and the core violations that occurred in 2010. Jump the break for a brief re-cap of the report. You can download a full copy of the report from Apple’s Supplier Responsibility website.
Intego’s Free Antivirus for Mac Gets 500K Downloads in 30 Days
In its first month of downloads, Intego’s VirusBarrier Express, which is being distributed exclusively on the Mac App Store, has racked up an impressive 500,000 downloads. VirusBarrier Express is Intego’s free antivirus and anti-malware offering that claims to protect Mac users from viruses, Trojan horses and other malware, including Windows malware that could be accidently passed on.
Help Desk Service Zendesk Releases iPad App
The web-based help desk service Zendesk has today rolled out a spiffy iPad app to allow companies and their employees to manage customer help desks on the go. The iPad application joins the existing offerings of iPhone, Android and BlackBerry apps that have a total of over 80,000 downloads.
The iPad app contains similar functionality to those existing mobile apps with some additions such as the ability for users to view a real-time list of tickets assigned and bookmark tickets for later response or reference. Zendesk’s CEO Zack Urlocker said to TechCrunch that he believes the iPad app will become their most popular mobile application as companies adopt the iPad in their businesses.