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发帖数: 8397 | 1 good read
http://venturebeat.com/2011/02/21/apple-readability-rejection-e
Will Apple’s subscription plan spark a developer exodus?
February 21, 2011 | Matthew Lynley2 Comments
For developers, it was Apple’s way or the highway. It seems like that
highway seems more appealing every day.
The team behind iPhone app Readability issued a biting public response
to Apple after its application was rejected because it did not use
Apple’s in-house in-app purchase service. Readability is one of a number
of mobile applications on the iPhone operating system that used an
external subscription for the app — which lets web surfers strip away
ads and other content and view just the text.
There was a lot of unrest when Apple first announced its new
subscription plan, which hit applications ranging from Readability to
the incredibly popular Amazon Kindle app, which includes a link to buy
books for Kindle. The uproar since died down, but Readability might be
the first company that works this close with Apple (Readability appears
in Safari) to publicly trash the new service.
Subscriptions represent a “sliver of a sliver” of revenue for Apple,
said Richard Ziade, Readability’s creator. It’s true — most of Apple’s
revenue comes from iPhone, iPod and iPad sales. Apple brought in $26.7
billion in revenue in the fourth quarter last year, and only $1.1
billion of that came from the iTunes store — which includes app sales
and in-app purchases.
Meanwhile, Google continues to welcome developers with open arms. While
the iPhone has the largest app store, Google recently overtook Nokia and
other phone manufacturers with the largest mobile operating system
market share. And despite a few hiccups with the application approval
process, most apps make it onto the Android Marketplace without having
to pass through anything like Apple’s black-box approval procedure.
Google also launched a more publisher-friendly Google One Pass that will
allow publishers to sell subscriptions with better terms than they can
get with Apple. And Google is only taking a 10 pecent share of the
revenues.
The new Apple policy feels like a greedy move by Apple to gobble up some
additional revenue, Ziade said. He suggests that Apple still hand out 70
percent of the revenue it receives from its stake in the subscription
share to publishers, as Readability does. But Apple rarely budges, even
when developers or consumers throw up their hands in frustration and
outrage over changes in the terms of service. When the company does make
a change, it takes a long time and a needs a lot of convincing.
iPhone and iPad developers have put up with a lot from Apple, and it’s
unclear if the new subscription plan will be the final straw for
developers across the board. But for Ziade, and for Readability, it
looks like enough is enough. |
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