Steve Jobs Responds To Subscription Debacle - SaaS Off The Hook?

The debacle surrounding Apple's newly introduced subscription feature, and its revenue sharing plan is reaching an all time high this week. Yesterday, we learned Apple rejected Readability, and the interwebs are now speculating that the survival of all SaaS apps (Software as a Service, think Dropbox or Basecamp) might be at stake. For now, we're still very much in the dark as to what Apple's stance really is on the matter. It's clear publishers will have to share 30 percent of all subscriptions made within iOS with Apple. Readability however might be defined as a publisher as well, so it's been hard to determine where Apple draws the line, or whether there is a line at all. In an attempt to find out more, Macrumors is reporting one developer who, in the grand tradition of Apple rumors, claims to have emailed Steve Jobs, and received an answer:

Hello Steve, As a full time iOS developer, I am concerned (and confused) withe the new App Store guideline regarding "Apps offering subscriptions" (section 11.12). Most of the iOS apps I have developed, as a contractor for other businesses, have been free apps that had login screens to allow the user access to some amount of private data. and/or service. These businesses have all been well established companies that sell some kind of service to their customers (Software As a Service companies) and the iOS app was merely another "portal" for their users to access their data/services (in many times, in a limited i.e. "mobile" fashion).... for example; SalesForce. I am concerned that most of these businesses will choose to not develop an iOS app for their customers if the IAP & subscription policy was in place.

To which Steve answered:

We created subscriptions for publishing apps, not SaaS apps. Sent from my iPhone

Steve's answer, if real, might seem quite vague at first. It does give us quite a brilliant insight if you give it some thought. Apple's subscription service, as Steve explains, is only intended for publishing apps, and not for other online service providers. My explanation is that Apple doesn't expect companies like Dropbox to take advantage of recurring subscriptions in iTunes, and therefore they won't have to share 30 percent of their monthly revenues with Apple. They are free to proceed as they have until now. The proof is that Apple already contacted publishers and requested they implement these new rules by the end of June. We haven't heard any similar reports from SaaS providers. In a nutshell, much of this debacle might just be a big misunderstanding. Of course, this doesn't solve the problem for publishers, or borderline cases such as Readability. Yet as John Gruber puts it:

Maybe I'm missing something, but these guys claiming to be surprised and disappointed by Apple's insistence on a 30 percent cut of subscriptions when their own business model is to take a 30 percent cut of subscriptions strikes me as rich. And how can they claim that Readability isn't "serving up content"? That's exactly what Readability does.

What do you think, is SaaS off the hook? How do you interpret Steve's words?

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