“Apple is being warned against trying to squeeze cash out of the newspaper industry by controlling subscriptions for iPads and iPhones,” BBC News reports.
“The European Newspaper Publishers’ Association (ENPA) says it is concerned by the company’s plans to direct online sales through iTunes,” The Beeb reports. “If that happens, the ENPA warns, a large cut of their profits would go to Apple.”
“Apple declined to comment on the ENPA’s criticism,” The Beeb reports. “The company has previously denied that it plans to stop users from buying subscriptions through publishers’ own websites. However, it has introduced a rule that newspaper apps must include an option to purchase through iTunes.”
MacDailyNews Take: And, so, the ENPA’s “concerns” are baseless.
The Beeb reports, “Critics argue that the ease of ‘in app’ subscription means most users will opt for Apple’s preferred method.”
MacDailyNews Take: Tough.
The Beeb reports, “In a related move, Belgium’s economy minister has called for an official investigation into Apple’s plans to sell e-newspapers. Vincent Van Quickenborne has suggested that the company may be abusing its dominant position in the market.”
MacDailyNews Take: Sounds like Q needs to go back to law school.
Full article here.
IDK about all this mumbo jumbo, but Palm is introducing the new tablet from them, and it looks pretty impressive. The multitasking is build in and seemless, runs smooth, so are the notifications. Built in and seemless. Feels like a complete package, not features added in after the fact.
European press association does not warn retail sellers of their newspapers and magazines, but why it warns Apple which does the same service?
I mean both retail sales system and Apple have their own delivery infrastructure expenses, and retail sales actually often takes way more than 30% of retail price of a newspaper or magazine.
Cue double standards?
Well done, Joe! You got all the talking points in! Gold star for you!
No, they are right. Forcing apps to require an option to buy through iTunes is a problem going forward for a lot of content providers.
However, the content providers should first poll their own readers to see if they would rather pay iTunes or go through the hassle of paying a newspaper directly.
If their content is so great, have them put it on a tablet/iphone friendly HTML5 website with animation, video, whatever and forget the app store “apps”.
I think “apps” for newspapers is silly. HTML5, CSS and Javascript work great on iOS. Check out yahoo’s ipad site for example, looks great.
“The Daily” type apps are massive black holes of development money where most of that functionality is available through good HTML5, CSS and Javascript already.
Sorry if truth hurts anyone’s feelings.
Apple sells so few “newspapers” at this point that the very idea of an anti-trust inquiry is laughable. Also, what about all these other “tablets” we keep hearing about? Judging by the press, you’d think these things are everywhere.
@ploogman
If a publisher builds their site, hosts their content, handles their own billing, then sure they deserve all the proceeds.
But if a publisher depends on Apple to host and distribute the content, then Apple deserves a cut.
And as was pointed out in the article, Apple has no plans to prevent the first option while providing the second.
Sorry, Apple’s not a villain here.
@ploogman
Another reason anti-trust is laughable. Native apps are not the only way of getting it out there. Lest we forget, web apps used to be the only way to do apps on iOS.
Europeans are so stupid. Just shut up and accept it.
Let’s see … newspapers have to cut down trees, haul them to pulp mills .. haul the paper rolls to massive presses … haul the printed papers by various means using gas, transportation, and people. Is it not a no-brainer to move to a system of electronic distribution. And the papers are concerned they might have to share revenue with Apple? Just plain dumb.
Another thick head dolt posts his mind farts.
Europussies hate competition, and the lazy lard asses are like US libs … If they can’t win amongst then people they go crying to the courts or governments. Likembabies with a diaper full of shit.
A whole continent of asswipe Pelosis.
I live in Norway. I make about 200 000$ and have about 120 000$ after tax. I work 37,5 hr/wk. I have 6 weeks paid vacation. I just recently had an accident and was on 3 weeks sick leave with full pay. Unemployment in Norway is about 2%.
Beat that stupid!
Frigtarded Eurocrats. They left out the part about the carbon app tax and limiting apps so they only work 35 hours a week.
All this dissing of Eurpeans in general is just a bad case of denial. If you look at how the countries of Western Europe run their countries, it’s crystal clear that Americans are the true retards.
Sure, Europe is nice on the surface, but is it sustainable? Go here
http://www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html
and carefully compare the numbers. For the most part, the Europeans are in an even deeper hole than the U.S.
Government agencies from any country: those who can, do; those who can’t, steal.
What do they think, Apple is some kind of community services society that provides these newspapers space and eyes for their apps, but wants no part of the profits they would make from these apps? And I’m amused by the use of the term “warn” – be afraid, Apple, of the newspaper association – be very afraid!
Problem with retards like the ENPA is that they can make billions selling news trough apple but they prefer to make just millions selling it their self.
Just like happened with record companies.
I’m Scottish and a European. Americans are so full of themselves. “Our way or no way” seems to be your mantra. Try taking your heads out of your a$$es for a while, the view is so much better.
Just because some European Minister has suggested something doesn’t mean he’s correct nor does it mean anyone will take notice.
Just remember a Belgian Minister is exactly that, a Minister of the Belgian Government, not the European Parliament, so his concerns are only really based from a Belgian perspective.
So you loud mouthed a$$mericans, don’t blight all of Europe for something a Belgian Minister said.
As for the European debt, yeah we are up the creek without a paddle, but that’s because the European Banks bought toxic debt from American Banks having been told by the American Banks the debt was a sound investment. (as a side note, the European Parliament passed a bill which declared all bananas had to be straight! I hadn’t thought about eating a gay banana before this happened!).
Getting back to the point of this thread. Apple have the right to a cut if they host and process the app. No big deal.
I’m European and think Kirkgray is absolutely right. We still don’t get basic economic and business concepts
“Belgium’s economy minister has called for an official investigation into Apple’s plans to sell e-newspapers…”
This is the modern world!
Catch up!
Europe: Apple, your competitive practices aren’t very nice. We would like to freeload on the infrastructure you spent billions to create so we can have a way to manage subscriptions in scale – something we’ve sat on our ass instead of developing – for free.
Apple: LOL
Seems like the solution would be simple. Charge $7 per month if you sign up on the newspaper’s website and you get access through Safari. If you want the App and to pay through iTunes, charge $10. Newspaper gets same amount of money.
Apple is the villain here. What you say would be nice however it is Apple that only offers one solution on how to get the content onto the device. I cannot download an app onto my device without having to go through iTunes, yet they want developers to add multiple ways on how to pay for that content.
30% is nice for one time purchases, however for a subscription I believe it’s highway robbery. I am so tired of everyone claiming how it’s cheaper for magazines and newspapers to pay the 30% when they never take into consideration what it costs to build and maintain the infrastructure to supply iTunes with said app and content. Developers cost money and I would guess probably more than someone running a press.
Apple, when it announced the iPad made a big ado about how this was going to revolutionize the “dying” print market. By stifling subscription access and removing the direct access of the customer from the content provider they are going back on their promise to revitalize the print industry. They leave the providers to deliver single issues at near newsstand prices and let them take all the fallout for charging the prices they do.
I am not with Apple on this one and I for one am deeply disappointed in their mishandling of this whole issue.
Welcome to the future of magazine and newspaper publishing.
They need to evolve or die out.
Reminds me exactly how the music industry reacted when apple launched the iTunes store.
History repeating itself…
If the European newsies don’t like paying for delivery, let them invent and distribute their own tablets.
@kirkgray
Your argument is ill-founded. There are two types of cost here: initial capital costs and ongoing costs. The initial capital cost of designing an iPad application is NOTHING compared to the setup costs for printing. The ongoing cost of maintaining and enhancing an iPad application is NOTHING compared to even the RUNNING costs of the factory which prints a newspaper. Distribution costs for a printed newspaper are vastly higher than the cost to upload an electronic publication to Apple’s servers (remember Apple wear all the considerable distribution/payment costs after this). The newspaper publisher has to pay everyone in the physical distribution system, and print many more copies than will be sold.
The bottom line is that the iTunes distribution mechanism results in a lower cost of production for the newspapers, and a lower price for the consumer. The newspaper publishers are just being greedy – they can see that the opportunity to milk the consumer is evaporating.
As for the “anti-Europe” comments – haha. Europe has a much stronger consumer protection philosophy than the USA, and of course no American can seriously suggest that running a $1.4+trillion debt-load qualifies as sound economic management. Americans who should get out more… Mexicans might see the US as a better place to live and work, but you don’t see waves of migrants, legal or otherwise, from Western Europe…
does anyone doubt this belgian minister has some tie to the paper media there?
They are like every industry facing a situation where it means evolving by embracing major technological changes usually resulting in smaller profits or go extinct altogether.
Apple seems to be very good at making a lot of money being a content delivery system. Started with Music, is extending towards TV, web advertising, movies.. and now news. All these businesses are being phased out by technology due to advancements in delivery systems… apple just tends to step up and insert themselves as a great solution for both sides. so they get a cut.
and yea- europe is fucking awesome. go explore it and then maybe you’ll drop your ignorant small minded sweeping generalizations, ya myopic dim wits.
@ Mac,
Interesting how you decry the use of generalizations and then proceed to lean on them in your argument. So I guess if we are to take your method of social analysis, I could make the determination that Europeans are idiot hypocrites?
Why don’t you actually take your own advise and actually get to know and understand the truth of a subject before spewing your baseless bullshit.
Thanks for playing, ass.
Safari anyone? Any newspaper can have their on-line addition viewable to subscribers only.
And how would most of the posters react if AT&T, Verizon, et al, decided that they deserve a cut of the subscription price when someone buys a magazine through the iTunes Store. After all, the ISPs are providing the interweb’s tubes to your house. Should the evil publishers be able to use those for no cost? I mean, think of all the postage they save by using the ISP’s tubes!
This view that an owner can do what he wants with the product as per a form of capitalisme sauvage is an American centric view which is not shared in the European Union or in most other Western countries.
The test is whether a company with a dominant position abuses that dominance. Microsoft abused their position with Windows and the EU took action over it. Even though no-one was forced to buy a Windows computer, their dominance in the market place reduced competition and led to unfair practices. The suggestion that a person or a consumer builds their own tablet or operating system is unrealistic.
If Apple are abusing a dominant position and following unfair practices then it is no defence to say that it owns the product. The promotion of fair practice and competition is important and the EU has taken action against American and European companies that have attempted to behave unfairly or abusively.
Ever since the Marshall Plan was instituted in 1945 to rehabilitate Europe after the Second World War, the spineless Europeans have latched on to the mentality that Americans should dole out whatever money is demanded of them by the typical lazy-ass welfare swilling Eurotrash.
To the average European mind, particularly the French who are experts in running away when faced with adversity, a tax on consumption like VAT is perfectly acceptable in exchange for crappy government services but mon dieu! God forbid if someone in the private sector charges a percentage of the gross for allowing you to display your wares on their electronic shopfront.
These Eurocrats are living in fantasyland inhabited by the denizens of Narnia where everything should be handed to them on a silver platter, the lazy bastards.
@ Ballmer’s left nut
Pot, meet Kettle. Kettle, Pot.
Can someone tell me, be they on the Left or otherwise, why does the US still defer to Old Europe on anything?
“…. is a problem going forward for a lot of content providers.”
Going forward? As opposed to going backward? Just what in the hell does that mean? Is it not restating the freeking obvious? The dumbest god damn saying ever. I’m sure Balmer T Knuttbyter coined it and has used it every day thereafter. Proof it is idiot speak in an attempt to impress the idiots.
Hey MDN changed to a new site. Looks good. However, some of the posts were cut off or deleted. I came back to reply to a post I no longer see. It was about business models and cost.
The one thing I wanted to comment on, was that he forgot R&D! And Apple spends BIG bucks on it!! It is only fair and proper that Apple makes a fair profit as well as recoup for R&D so that we here in America can stand in line for the next must have Apple product and some idiot European Politician can comment on Apple’s unfair practices and yet we never here of a European computer company of the same calibre of Apple or even Microsoft, creating their own hardware and software that gets all the world abuzz. Why is that???
Ever since the Marshall Plan was instituted in 1945 to rehabilitate Europe after the Second World War, the spineless Europeans have latched on to the mentality that Americans should dole out whatever money is demanded of them by the typical lazy-ass welfare swilling Eurotrash.
To the average European mind, particularly the French who are experts in running away when faced with adversity, a tax on consumption like VAT is perfectly acceptable in exchange for crappy government services but mon dieu! God forbid if someone in the private sector charges a percentage of the gross for allowing you to display your wares on their electronic shopfront.
These Eurocrats are living in fantasyland inhabited by the denizens of Narnia where everything should be handed to them on a silver platter, the lazy bastards.
Baseless comments like yours make my blood boil.
‘Ever since the Marshall Plan was instituted in 1945 to rehabilitate Europe after the Second World War, the spineless Europeans have latched on to the mentality that Americans should dole out whatever money is demanded of them by the typical lazy-ass welfare swilling Eurotrash.’
Where did you copy and paste this tripe from? Are you aware that Europe is to this day still paying back this debt to the US? The Marshall Plan was needed but it wasn’t free, even if that is what many Americans think..
To the topic at hand: the 30% model for subscriptions is something that does need to be addressed, and I think Apple will sooner or later. Two industries come immediately to mind: Trains and Cinemas. Say you build an iOS where you can reserve and purchase Train or Cinema tickets in said app, there is no way that these companies can afford the 30% Apple take and I believe Apple still cares about this type of business, as well as newspaper/magazine subscriptions. In fact, I’d wager this will be changed sooner than later..
@Vincent Van Quickenborne
First off, this isn’t Europe, but a national minister, a Mac User BTW, of all people. I don’t quite understand his point, because web apps are an alternative that usually is more versatile than appStore apps.
If anyone should make comments, it should be the European commission, but not for this particular issue. The concept intself of one iTunes/iOS/app store per European country is flawed, in that it is contrary to the European rules that impose the free flow of information/commerce/services between member countries. I know, Apple has had to negociate with separate author fees collecting agencies in each country because of the stronghold these agencies still seem to have. They should only local outlets of a central European agency.
On the free flow of information, if you are logged in to a national online Apple Store, you can’t even see users’ previews from other countries, severely limiting their utility.
@R2, @Ballmer’s left nut
And what is this Europe-bashing spree about? Europe is still in its infancy where it comes to having strong political stances. Economically, yes.
Europe is slowly undoing all kinds of “unsovable” dillemas in national legislation (unsolvable, due to almost feodal local interests).
@X
“like US libs … If they can’t win amongst then people they go crying to the courts”
You mean like all the Repcons who are “Crying To The Courts” to stop “The Affordable Care Act” which was passed by the duly elected House and Senate and signed by a duly elected President, all elected by the “People”!
@kirkgray
@MrMcLargeHuge
No. The problem is not that Apple gets a cut – but that they are demanding that periodic content (news, magazines) also go through their billing system. They are not making it optional.
Obviously Apple is entitled to a cut of App sales from the App Store. But periodic content (like The Daily’s system) does not get downloaded through Apple’s servers – it comes directly from the content provider. So, NO, Apple should not be “entitled” to a cut of that and they will change their tune soon. If you dominate a market, you have to be careful what you demand form vendors. Next time, read my entire comment before blasting me.
No comment. Just testing a post.