New Business Conditions Change The Course For Mobile App Subscriptions

As Apple plans to impose a new business agreement on publishers for subscription sales, many are finding ways around Apple's stranglehold by building mobile websites. The new business conditions for subscription publishers will dictate that Apple receives 30% of the sale and keeps the customer sales data, which is a big deal for many publishers. The new business arrangement goes into effect the end of June.

The Financial Times is planning on circumventing the Apple subscription plan by releasing a mobile site that acts as an iPad or iPhone application. The web app would live outside Apple's walled garden.  The mobile website uses HTML5, which is compatible with a large number of mobile devices including iPad, iPhone, Blackberry, and Android.

IPhone and iPad users account for 15 percent of The Financial Times’s digital subscriber growth, which testifies to the risk that FT is taking by not complying with Apple's updated conditions. The Financial Times has 224,000 paying customers to its website and mobile applications.

With Apple's new plan, cross-platform subscriptions will certainly become more difficult or impossible for many publishers.