Ive been thinking about how exactly subscriptions will work with the iPad. Right now, there isnt a system in place to enable you to subscribe to anything via the app store, or even within an app. Everything in the app store is buy it once. From what Ive seen, the iBook store will be the same way you buy a book and youre done.
It seems to me theres an obvious need for some kind of interface to buy subscriptions If content providers like NYTimes really want to play in this space, theyre going to need a way to do it.
I believe you cant do this via an app i.e. buy the NYTimes app, then pay some money to NYTimes in app? This would also be clunky, as it wouldnt give the user a single place to manage such subscriptions. They'd have to go through a payment signup process for each subscription, and have no easy way to see what they've all paid for.
Whats needed is something similar to iBooks or iTunes that lets you search for whats available, easily see what you have subscribed to, quickly launch those content viewer(s), and manage your subscriptions. The subscription models will need to be very flexible too. Depending on the content, these will either need to be time-based (for content that is continuously updated), or issue-based (such that you could buy a single issue say, of a comic or national geographic). This will let you buy a longer subscription at a discount. There could also be a full access option (for example, you could get access to the entire archive of national geographic magazines). The interface should clearly show each of these subscriptions, along with what you have left, and what options there are to extend those subscriptions.
Another question is how will the content in these subscriptions be launched? Will each entity have their own app/interface? If you run the NYTimes app, will it peek inside iSubscribe to see what you have access to? Or will there be some template that works within something like iSubscribe? (similar to iBooks) Will content be downloaded and saved to your device? Or, if you let your subscription run-out, do you lose access to everything you could previously see?
There are some subscription Podcasts today, where you have to buy a special key, and then get access to the podcast. With these, the payment is totally outside the apple store. That seems like an oversight to me. Apple is making it difficult to find and subscribe to such podcasts, and missing out on some revenue too.
Ive brought this up before, but have yet to see a serious discussion of it and I think itll really be a critical component of how subscriptions would work. Its not like Apple to let this get all sloppy and disjointed Any other thoughts on this?
It seems to me theres an obvious need for some kind of interface to buy subscriptions If content providers like NYTimes really want to play in this space, theyre going to need a way to do it.
I believe you cant do this via an app i.e. buy the NYTimes app, then pay some money to NYTimes in app? This would also be clunky, as it wouldnt give the user a single place to manage such subscriptions. They'd have to go through a payment signup process for each subscription, and have no easy way to see what they've all paid for.
Whats needed is something similar to iBooks or iTunes that lets you search for whats available, easily see what you have subscribed to, quickly launch those content viewer(s), and manage your subscriptions. The subscription models will need to be very flexible too. Depending on the content, these will either need to be time-based (for content that is continuously updated), or issue-based (such that you could buy a single issue say, of a comic or national geographic). This will let you buy a longer subscription at a discount. There could also be a full access option (for example, you could get access to the entire archive of national geographic magazines). The interface should clearly show each of these subscriptions, along with what you have left, and what options there are to extend those subscriptions.
Another question is how will the content in these subscriptions be launched? Will each entity have their own app/interface? If you run the NYTimes app, will it peek inside iSubscribe to see what you have access to? Or will there be some template that works within something like iSubscribe? (similar to iBooks) Will content be downloaded and saved to your device? Or, if you let your subscription run-out, do you lose access to everything you could previously see?
There are some subscription Podcasts today, where you have to buy a special key, and then get access to the podcast. With these, the payment is totally outside the apple store. That seems like an oversight to me. Apple is making it difficult to find and subscribe to such podcasts, and missing out on some revenue too.
Ive brought this up before, but have yet to see a serious discussion of it and I think itll really be a critical component of how subscriptions would work. Its not like Apple to let this get all sloppy and disjointed Any other thoughts on this?
