The Wall Street Journal & Kobo Fall In-Line With Apple's In-App Subscription Policy
by Joe White
July 25, 2011
This weekend, it was announced that The Wall Street Journal's iPhone and iPad apps and the universal Kobo e-book app would soon support Apple's in-app subscription policy, suggesting that the Cupertino, CA company is beginning to clamp down on those resisting the change. Following the announcement, Kobo updated its universal app, removing the Kobo Store from within the application. As of this moment, The Wall Street Journal's iOS apps have not been updated.
Apple's in-app policies have caused a bit of a stir in the iOS world, essentially because they ban publishers and developers from selling content powered by their own model through an application. Instead, Apple urges publishers to adopt the company's on "in-app" means of purchasing and subscribing to content. Because Apple takes a 30 percent cut of in-app sales, many publishers and developers were upset with the policy, as it would result in massive losses.
The deadline for compliance with this policy was reportedly June 30. While The New York Times, Hulu and many others have fallen in-line with the policy, several major publishers have not - namely, Amazon (Kindle), Netflix, The Wall Street Journal and Kobo. Now, two of these "final four" have announced that they will support the policy, which is clearly a step in the right direction.
The news comes via The Wall Street Journal, in an article that recently hit the Web:
In a pair of moves that suggest Apple Inc. is enforcing rules for selling content on its devices, Kobo Inc., the Canadian e-book retailer, and The Wall Street Journal said Sunday they will no longer sell content directly to customers through their apps for Apple devices.As of this moment, The Wall Street Journal's iOS apps have not been updated to reflect the change. However, Kobo's universal app has. This could suggest that Apple is soon going to enforce its policy upon all apps in time, though as of this moment we haven't heard any news regarding Amazon's Kindle app or the Netflix application. Currently, we're watching the App Store like a bunch of rowdy, crazy hawks, waiting eagerly for updates or removals. If you ask me, I would suggest that changes to Amazon's Kindle app and the Netflix application will be made in the near future. However, whether this will result in immediate rejection, the rejection of future updates or both apps falling in-line with the policy remains to be seen. We'll keep you posted.