Apple’s announcement last week introducing App Store Subscriptions has generated a lot of controversy across the web. At issue is Apple’s policy requiring publishers to also offer all subscriptions through Apple’s In-App purchase system which gives Apple a 30% cut. Meanwhile, publishers are still allowed to sell subscriptions outside of the App Store (and keep 100%) but they can’t undercut the App Store price. From the original announcement:
“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.
While the wording of the original announcement was aimed specifically at content publishers, there has been growing concern that the terms don’t allow for “software as a service” (SaaS) apps as well. These are apps such as DropBox and SalesForce that provide specific services to users for recurring subscription fee.
Steve Jobs Email Suggests In-App Subscriptions Don’t Apply to ‘Software As a Service’? – Mac Rumors.
