tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post5764319390094363638..comments2024-03-18T22:39:50.137-07:00Comments on A Kindle World blog: Apple: App Subscription policies MIGHT not affect Amazon's ebook appAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05109282436243758435noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post-19835634972265258612011-03-09T18:41:32.099-08:002011-03-09T18:41:32.099-08:00Michael, I agree with your points for the most par...Michael, I agree with your points for the most part.<br /><br /> However, if they reject Sony's ereader app on the basis of outside-app buying begun inside the app while not providing an in-app purchase via Apple, I think there's a law that they'd need to apply that to all e-bookstores. <br /><br /> It's just that it's not likely they'd be insisting on the 70-30 split in the one-off e-book reseller case, as many had thought, since that would leave the reseller/developer 0% profit.<br /><br /> I wonder what B&N, Amazon, or Sony would consider a bearable percentage. 3%? 5%? <br /><br /> Or will the book resellers just not offer outside-app buying within the Apple app anymore?<br /><br /> How much is it worth to have a customer on an iPad or iPhone/iPod be brought via Safari to the exact Amazon (or BN, Sony) book they were looking at in the Apple app?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05109282436243758435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post-5118930091660022462011-03-08T10:39:01.608-08:002011-03-08T10:39:01.608-08:00These remarks suggest that, although it won't ...These remarks suggest that, although it won't say so openly, Apple doesn't actually intend to behave like an intolerable bully when the result would do it more harm than benefit. (i.e. their customers can 'be damned' if their numbers aren't too large). <br /><br />That may be true and, if so, it leaves giant, popular services like Amazon and Netflix safe, but not the smaller players. And if Sony's stumbling moves into ebook distribution are too small for Apple to respect, then much smaller game developers who'd like a subscription model may be in big trouble. Using Apple's own muddled language, it would be easy to say that games are more like publishing than a service.<br /><br />At any rate, as a consumer I'm not reassured by news that Apple may be restrained by any pain it may suffer. It's my pain that I care about. I've paid quite a bit for the Apple products I use, and I don't like to hear Apple claiming that matters for nothing, that their often overpriced products were really loss-leaders and that it has the right to collect 30% of the income from some ill-defined category of transactions, simply because those transactions are using IOS. Sorry Apple, if you want a share of those transactions, you need to compete openly for them, not use app approval as a club to crush competition.<br /><br />Apple seems trying to replay its game with music distributors circa 2002. It seems to be targeting what it sees as relatively weak industries, book and magazine publishing, as they're going through major changes. But Apple execs have blundered badly. They are too late. Those industries were already making the transition without help from Apple, They don't need Steve Jobs as Savior. They just need him to keeps his hands out of their pockets. <br /><br />When it comes to books, Amazon and B&N, along with Kobo, Smashwords and others, have come up with effective ways to provide the public with digital books to digital gadgets. There's no need for Apple except as a platform for some of those apps much like the Droid and Windows. If Apple wants to join that game-in-progress, it needs to behave and show respect for both its competitors (who have better products) and the public at large.Michael W. Perryhttp://www.inklingbooks.com/noreply@blogger.com