The Financial Times Threatens To Leave App Store Over Apple's Subscription Model
March 3, 2011
Executives at The Financial Times are extremely angry about Apple’s revised subscription plan. They may pull their popular Financial Times iPad Edition app from the App Store, according to a report in The Guardian. Whether this is a serious threat, or simply a warning to Apple remains to be seen.
Earlier this month, Apple unveiled its new subscription service for magazines and newspapers purchased through the App Store. The terms give Apple 30 percent of subscription revenues and they also retain control of customer information.
This has become a bitter pill to swallow for many publishers.
According to Pearson chief executive Margorie Scardino, 40 percent of FT revenues are from digital subscription purchases made through the newspaper’s website or iPad app. Despite this, they are apparently shopping their product to other digital outlets.
The Financial Times is owned by London, UK-based Pearson.
Scardino states:
“It is unclear how (Apple’s) proposal is going to work, we are still talking to them.The important thing to remember is there are many, many tablets coming out and multiple devices ... [from] Kindle to mobiles. If indeed Apple are not happy to give us customer data then maybe we will get it somewhere else."Publishers can threaten to pull products out of the App Store. However, doing so is probably unlikely. Especially with revenues on the line. The introduction of other tablets will certainly diminish Apple’s dominance in the market. However, the iPad will remain king at least in the short term. Until that changes, publishers such as The Financial Times are at a disadvantage. They can try to negotiate better terms with Apple or suck it up and go along with the new subscription plan. The free Financial Times iPad Edition remains available in the App Store, and still requires a subscription.