Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Apple to require in-app subscriptions for periodicals by March 31st, fine print still a bit fuzzy

We knew The Daily was to be just the first drop what's destined to be a flood of titles with in-app purchases for the iTunes store, but we weren't quite sure how hard Apple would be twisting the faucet -- until now, that is. According to The Wall Street Journal, Cupertino will reject any newspaper or magazine app that doesn't take subscription payments through the iTunes store. It doesn't have to be solely Apple's store -- developers can still sell through websites in addition to the mandated in-app option. (If you recall, this is the same issue that Sony Reader for iOS just faced.) There are a few big questions lingering out there: will the 70 / 30 revenue sharing apply? Does the "rejection" apply to apps already in the store like Amazon's Kindle? You bet your (virtual) bottom dollar we'll be finding out soon enough.