Apple Trying To Run All Content Sales Through Its Own Sales System
from the that-might-not-go-over-so-well dept
Apple continues to make the iPhone/iPad app platform as obsessively controlled as possible. The latest are reports that Apple is starting to block other apps that sell content within their apps -- i.e., no more Kindle purchases on your iPad. The story is that Apple now wants all such purchases to go through Apple's cash register, so it gets a cut. Of course, that just seems like another opportunity for folks to seek out alternative solutions, such as via web apps, which Apple can't block. This seems like the sort of move that could backfire on Apple. It's no secret that the company likes to control such things, and to force everything through its own gateway and payment systems (where it gets to take a cut), but if it keeps doing things like that it's going to piss off an awful lot of potentially useful partners.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: apps, content, ipad, iphone, itunes, point of sales
Companies: apple
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Pissing off potentially useful partners
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Re: Pissing off potentially useful partners
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Kindle doesn't do in-app purchases
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Re: Kindle doesn't do in-app purchases
CNET is saying not just In-App purchases, but any purchase that can be downloaded on the device (so that could be books, VOD, who knows)
Now, THAT would really suck - so this would bring us back to 2003 where I could buy an app for my Treo, but then had to download it to my PC and sync it.
That kinda thing would make me want to look for another tablet (i love my iPad).
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Re: Kindle doesn't do in-app purchases
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Apple content controls
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Re: Apple content controls
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so... DRM bad, choice good... everyone in this situation is bad then?
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Well at least they have their intellectual snobbery to keep them warm at night. LOL
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Re:
The only reason why Android based phones is out selling the iPhones is Apple decided long ago to sign exclusive deals with one carrier per region. In the US it's AT&T while Androids are available from AT&T, Verizon, T Mobile, Sprint, etc. Now that Verizon is getting the iPhone Android lead will shrink.
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Meanwhile, Android will keep selling huge numbers of devices from multiple manufacturers on every network out there. They aren't going to slow down at all.
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Control of market
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Re: Control of market
If people don't like Apple's controlling nature, they can opt for friendlier ecosystems like Android or pure web apps.
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Re: Control of market
Besides, there are other choices, just don't buy an i-device. get a droid, get a droid tablet, buy a nook or even a kindle.
As much as I would like to have an iPad, I just can't bring myself to put out the money for it. I would likely get more use out of the droid tablet and a droid (angry birds!)than I ever would out of the iPad or an iphone.
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Is it no surprise?
This is why I will never touch Apple products. Too locked down, and they treat their customers like idiots.
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Re: Is it no surprise?
One of my favorite sayings and I don't know where it came from:
Even if you are average intelligence, half the of the people are below you.
But I agree on the Apple being locked down :)
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Re: Re: Is it no surprise?
A Guy calls up tech support ... can't get his computer to work. The tech support guy says now move the mouse around. The guy answers I don't see a mouse, and whats foot pedal for?
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Re: Is it no surprise?
iPhone =\= all of Apple
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Build in the "Apple tax"?
x - x*.30 = 10 = x(.7)
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Here We Go Again...
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Re: Here We Go Again...
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Forbiden fruit
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Yet another deal breaker
The smart money will be on Android and its OPEN structure.
The apple tax strikes again.
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Not enough data yet...
But a few points worth reviewing here:
@Anonymous Coward: re: "Why haven't anyone file antitrust lawsuit against them now? I'd think this is a severe manipulation of market (by forcing everyone to trade in their app store) using rules bonded on the device."
Because, despite the mindshare of the iPhone, it hold a trivially small proportion of the overall mobile phone market, and only a respectable part of the smartphone market ref. http://www.asymco.com/2011/02/01/the-iphone-share-17-25-of-smartphones-4-2-all-phones/
Antitrust is used when a company (or consortium) abuses it's dominant or monopolistic position to force others out of the market. In no stretch of the imagination could Apple be considered in a dominant position by our current standards of defining markets. Even if you are defining the market in terms of eReading devices Amazon tells us that they've sold millions of Kindles, plus all of the other competing devices, including Android devices.
Then there's the question of gatekeeping or curating a marketplace. Right now you can't buy iBooks, Barnes and Noble, Fictionwise, etc. on a Kindle. An outright ban could be considered even more prejudicial and closed than asking for a cut. Likewise you can't buy Kindle books on your SONY and so on.
Noting of course that there are a pile of other products where the manufacturer acts as the gatekeeper and takes a cut of everything offered for their platform. Think xBox, PS3, Wii, all of whom require that developers go through their sales and distribution channels.
The other side issue about the openness or lack thereof of a platform which is of particular interest to the very small segment of the population that reads Engadget, Techdirt, Slashdot etc. It's a philosophical issue. The overwhelming majority of the population (the "normals") just want something that works, is attractive, easy to use and obvious to discover, is reliable, has good after sales service etc. These are the important factors, not whether the underlying technology ascribes to some kind of openness.
And at the end of the day, it's just business - everyone's in the game trying to monetize as much of their product chain as they can. Witness all of the posturing last year with Amazon and the publishers where everyone tries to take home as much of the pie as they can get their hands on.
Is this particular case a _good_ business decision? I personally don't think so (at least not at the current rates), but from a "normal" user perspective, in app purchase is about as friction-free as it gets where the current Kindle style jump out to the web and purchase and then back to the app is kludgey and strange.
@ Anonymous Coward 2 "eh, shouldn't buy that DRM stuff anyway... right? right?"
That's where we should all be complaining. Which is why I buy all of my eBooks via Amazon and Kobo, strip the DRM and put them all into Calibre for reading in Stanza. This current morass of incompatible formats and platform/store/device specific DRM is a royal PITA. Shout out to Baen Books for selling in multiple formats and without DRM.
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Sony's response just cracking me up
That one coming from Sony! You just can't make up stuff like this.
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Personally, I have an Android.
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Is it a good idea for Apple to do this? We'll see. Sony and Amazon and Barnes and Noble are certainly pissed about it, but realistically, if you're an Apple customer, this is unlikely to hurt you - and in fact it probably makes it more convenient for you. (The only way you as a consumer get hurt is if Sony and Amazon and B&N decide to drop their apps entirely. That seems unlikely - Apple didn't make this move until it was offering a market so large that they would find it difficult to walk away. But Amazon in particular is no pushover - they'll certainly bargain hard. We have certainly not heard the last word on how this will actually work.)
-- Jerry
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Why Apple Will FAIL
Checkout an interesting analysis on this topic here: http://www.themusicvoid.com/2011/02/why-apple-will-fail-unless-it-changes-course/
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Apple is already dead.
And that's fine with me, I can now tell if someone is worth communicating with just by looking at their hand.
For that I am thankfull Apple exists.
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