Last week, Apple unveiled a long-awaited subscription model for "content-based apps" that was met with criticism almost immediately. Now an email from Apple CEO Steve Jobs reinforced that the model applies to publishers, but some developers are complaining that the guidelines are being applied to other kinds of apps.
"We created subscriptions for publishing apps, not SaaS [Software as a Service] apps," Jobs said an email sent in response to a developer, obtained by MacRumors.
With the subscription model, Apple takes 30 percent of all sales and awards the remaining 70 percent to the app maker. Jobs' email implies that this rule, however, would only apply to publishing apps such as magazines or newspapers, but developers of SaaS apps have reported that their applications have been rejected by Apple because they refuse to fork over Apple's 30 percent cut.
Readability, an app that allows users to read content both ad- and clutter-free for $5 a month, updated its app to be specifically tailored to the new subscription program. Apple rejected the app on the grounds that it circumvented the In App Purchase (IAP) API.
"Readability's model is unique in that 70 percent of our service fees go directly to writers and publishers," the company said in an open letter to Apple on its blog. "If we implemented In App purchasing, your 30 percent cut drastically undermines a key premise of how Readability works.
Readability isn't the only app having issues with the new guidelines. Tiny Grab, an app that offers "social screenshot sharing," said that Apple's new service prohibits them from pursuing an iOS app.
"We really want to be a part of the app revolution on OS X and iOS but it looks as though that we may no longer be able to happen, until Apple fix [sic] these issues and welcome us in again," Tiny Grab said in a blog post. "I'm sad to say that as of today we can no longer provide development support to iOS, officially, through the app store."
The Apple-directed backlash started almost immediately after the subscription model was revealed, with Rhapsody claiming that the model was economically infeasible. A day later, Google chimed in with its own One Pass subscription model, with Google taking just a 10 percent cut.