Apple has decided that ebook publishers and retailers, whose books make their way onto Apple devices, must allow the books to be purchased via Apple. If you are an iPazzle owner and go to Amazon to buy “The Help” there must also be a link to purchase that book from iTunes/Store as well. Apple will earn 30%. Sony an ebook retailer has already balked at this dictate.
Apple is not saying you have to buy from them, just that they deserve equal access. Seems fair enough. Apple Fanboys and girls may wish to give their hard-earned to their favorite brand, as is their right, but where will this taking a cut of the content stop? Will Apple at some point want a penny for every phone call that lands on an iPhone? And how would you sell that to your custies? “It goes to R&D to help design better products?” Might work.
Apple, already an opt-in monopoly of almost cult-like dimension, is creating a platform (read Steve Lohr’s article in The New York Times) that stretches beyond hardware and software and into that amorphous area of services. They had better be a bit careful though. Opt-in is one thing…dictatorship quite another. Peace!
