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Rhapsody passes on Apple's "economically untenable" sub plans

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Re: Rhapsody passes on Apple's "economically untenable" sub plans

#61

Post by georgemcbay »

anthonycerra wrote: post #14
alanfalcon wrote: post #5

Time to pull the iOS app, build a mobile web app, and have your customers send e-mails to steve@me.com expressing their displeasure.

I'll do one better than email Steve. This will be my last iPhone.

The iPhone 3G was my (first and) last iPhone because of other issues (the language lockdown). Actually not just my last iPhone but my last Apple Thing, period.

Voting with your wallet is the ONLY thing one can do to really get their attention (governments could step in on anti-competitive grounds, but that's not really something we can help with short of contacting our representatives).

If the user base just whines and moans while continuing to line up for the next shiny phone a week in advance of release to help Apple deliver record quarter after record quarter, Apple isn't going to change anything, they are just going to keep pushing and pushing. They've already shown that clearly in the past.. this is hardly the first questionable decision they've made in terms of controlling the iOS platform.

Re: Rhapsody passes on Apple's "economically untenable" sub plans

#62

Post by ghshephard »

eavc wrote: post #47
ghshephard wrote: post #41

I've just realized what Apple is up to here - it took me a day, and some of the excellent comments on HN - but I now get it. My inability to see what was going on, was that I couldn't see how Netflix/Amazon/Rhapsody/etc... could operate, profitably, under this plan. The 30% cut would eat their entire margin (and more). And the plan is brutally straightforward and honest, if you just mediate on it for a few days. Appl…

"It's customer centric, and, if they pull it off (With a good streaming, book reading, and content delivery platform) - brilliant." I don't see how this is customer-centric in the traditional idea of the term at all. Customers want to be able to listen to Pandora and sync with their Kindle. Customers do not want restrictive DRM and policies that lock them into a given company for eternity. I thought we were headed in…

"Customer Centric" as opposed to "Content Creator Centric" or "Developer Centric" - Apple is focusing on creating an experience for the customer.

Now - whether you _want_ Apple to be doing that, instead of just creating a neutral hardware system that permits others is another thing. I, personally, would prefer that Apple focus more on insanely great hardware, and developer centric policies, while simultaneously allowing all content providers to sell me their movies, TV, magazines, and Music.

I understand why Apple is choosing a different path, though. If they succeed - they just might create something we've never had before - A consistent, seamless, unified content purchase and presentation platform.

It will be interesting to see how it works out - and yes, I couldn't agree with you more - Thank goodness for Android - we've got choice.

Re: Rhapsody passes on Apple's "economically untenable" sub plans

#63

Post by jim-greer »

ghshephard wrote: post #62
eavc wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's customer centric, and, if they pull it off (With a good streaming, book reading, and content delivery platform) - brilliant." I don't see how this is customer-centric in the traditional idea of the term at all. Customers want to be able to listen to Pandora and sync with their Kindle. Customers do not want restrictive DRM and policies that lock them into a given company for eternity. I thought we were headed in…

"Customer Centric" as opposed to "Content Creator Centric" or "Developer Centric" - Apple is focusing on creating an experience for the customer. Now - whether you _want_ Apple to be doing that, instead of just creating a neutral hardware system that permits others is another thing. I, personally, would prefer that Apple focus more on insanely great hardware, and developer centric policies, while simultaneously allow…

Apple is "Customer Centric" in many ways, but this isn't one of them. I don't think the motivation for this decision was on creating a great customer experience.

Re: Rhapsody passes on Apple's "economically untenable" sub plans

#64

Post by veidr »

ghshephard wrote: post #41

I've just realized what Apple is up to here - it took me a day, and some of the excellent comments on HN - but I now get it. My inability to see what was going on, was that I couldn't see how Netflix/Amazon/Rhapsody/etc... could operate, profitably, under this plan. The 30% cut would eat their entire margin (and more). And the plan is brutally straightforward and honest, if you just mediate on it for a few days. Appl…

I really hope they do kick the Kindle off of the iPhone. I read about ten or twenty Kindle books a month. I read them on my iPhone when stuck somewhere waiting or whatever, I read and search them on one of my computer monitors while at work, and I read them on my Kindle device in bed.

And, if Apple fucks this up on the iPhone--as they apparently are willing to do--then I will finally muster up the effort to get an Android phone and stop using iOS. As a user, I have long been offended by all kinds of things about Apple's behavior since the naziPhone debuted. But I am too lazy and unprincipled to do anything about it.

I mean, it's one thing to try to make a system friendly to incompetent and technically handicapped users. Apple does that with the Mac, and the Mac is the best platform out there for almost anything you might want to do. Because you can turn on the right mouse button. You can turn on full keyboard access. You can install Mondomouse and resize windows from any edge. You can fix all the simpleton-friendly crap and it is a kickass system. (And you can script all that stuff, so you don't need to do it over and over again when you provision a new Mac.)

However, it is a whole different thing when you design a system for the low-competence user, and then actively work to prevent any user from fixing the resulting shortcomings. When you even try to make it illegal to fix those (an endeavor in which they failed, thankfully).

I hate that. And so lately I claim to hate Apple and their fascist little phone, but the good parts are so damn good I cannot bring myself to get rid of it. I was really on the verge of junking my naziPhone 3GS and not getting the 4 when it came out, but then there was that damn Retina Display and I knew I would be carrying another beautiful crippled little mussoliniPhone around with me.

But if Kindle stops working on the iPhone, at long last I will be freed! I have so many kindle books, use them on multiple devices every single day, and that would just be the straw that broke the camel's back and with it the beautiful little 320ppi animated chains that bind me.

Then my phone would suck in lots of little ways, but I wouldn't have a huge corporation trying to stop me from fixing those things. FREEEEEDOM!!!

So here's hoping.

Re: Rhapsody passes on Apple's "economically untenable" sub plans

#65

Post by elai »

kemayo wrote: post #49
evgen wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We want to be able to listen to Pandora and sync with our Kindle to read e-books. The vast majority of the iOS userbase just want to listen to music and read e-books and do not care as much about what delivery mechanism provides the content. As much as I hate to admit it, they are not really going to miss Pandora or the Kindle app as much as we might like to hope. [For future reference, try not to use the Kindle as a…

It is important to draw a distinction between "the Kindle" (the hardware device sold by Amazon) and the "Kindle Store" (Amazon's e-book sales platform). The Kindle Store, yes, is all about the DRM. And it's the "platform" accessed by the Kindle app on assorted devices. However, if you're talking about the hardware device then it's entirely reasonable to ignore the DRM issue. You plug it into your computer and it moun…

The iPad also displays and sync ePubs with no DRM with iTunes, same as the kindle.

Re: Rhapsody passes on Apple's "economically untenable" sub plans

#66

Post by elai »

rst wrote: post #40
saturdaysaint wrote: post #12

I'm not happy to have predicted this in comments early today: (some slight paraphrasing) The current state of affairs - where Apple provides a nice sales channel (marketing in a sense) on their already highly profitable devices and where service providers bring attractive service to the platform - is a fairly even trade. Apple is asking for such a drastic renegotiation of this "trade balance" that I predict services…

They're not allowed to reprice for iOS, unless they also reprice for all their other platforms. Quoting the Apple announcement[1], "we require ... that, if a publisher is making a subscription offer outside of the app, the same (or better) offer be made inside the app." [1] http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/02/15appstore.html

You can make a token better offer with pricing that is near %30 more, since "better" is fairly subjective. Mobile carriers do this all of the time with things like unlimited texting, or caller id in canada. Since apple is a premium product, you have have premium service pricing.

Re: Rhapsody passes on Apple's "economically untenable" sub plans

#67

Post by nedrichards »

jcurbo wrote: post #56
minalecs wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

amazon offers magazine subscription for kindle. Besides, I think Apple has been known to ignore or allow exceptions. For these SAAS companies, I imagine Apple will allow them to slide, but by their own terms.. it sounds like they shouldn't. I think their only main concerns are profiting from companies that compete directly with Apple revenue streams, music, movies, and books.

Kindle magazine subscriptions are only available for the Kindle hardware itself, IIRC.

They are now offered in the Android Kindle application as well.

Re: Rhapsody passes on Apple's "economically untenable" sub plans

#68

Post by ladon86 »

Pooter wrote: post #54
possibilistic wrote: post #53

Why hasn't a massive antitrust case against Apple been launched? Their behavior strikes me as far more anticompetitive than that of Microsoft during the "Browser Wars". Apologists: I don't care that Apple created something this profitable--that is not the issue. Desiring complete control over the mere act of computing on your own machine* is the problem. Apple is doing a wonderful job of absorbing a large swath of th…

Apple doesn't even come close to having a monopoly. Microsoft most certainly did have one during the browser wars, and were leveraging it to get people to increase IE marketshare. With Windows on the desktop, you didn't really have much of a choice but Windows if you were going to use pre-package software, play games, or do business. With the iPhone, you've got tons of competition - Android, RIM, and WP7. If you don'…

They're pretty close to having a monopoly on paid digital music downloads, and perhaps portable music devices, and they're shutting out competitor streaming music services with this move.

Re: Rhapsody passes on Apple's "economically untenable" sub plans

#69

Post by shaggyfrog »

cageface wrote: post #44
jodrellblank wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank god Android scares them. Evidence?

http://androidandme.com/2010/03/news/rotten-apple-htc-sued-o...

That link is almost 11 months old, and given all the furor we've heard about HTC and Apple suing the pants off each other during those last 11 months -- i.e. zilch -- I don't think this link supports that argument.

Re: Rhapsody passes on Apple's "economically untenable" sub plans

#70

Post by ZeroGravitas »

ghshephard wrote: post #62
eavc wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's customer centric, and, if they pull it off (With a good streaming, book reading, and content delivery platform) - brilliant." I don't see how this is customer-centric in the traditional idea of the term at all. Customers want to be able to listen to Pandora and sync with their Kindle. Customers do not want restrictive DRM and policies that lock them into a given company for eternity. I thought we were headed in…

"Customer Centric" as opposed to "Content Creator Centric" or "Developer Centric" - Apple is focusing on creating an experience for the customer. Now - whether you _want_ Apple to be doing that, instead of just creating a neutral hardware system that permits others is another thing. I, personally, would prefer that Apple focus more on insanely great hardware, and developer centric policies, while simultaneously allow…

I think the phrase you were looking for is "Apple-centric" since you yourself listed several ways in which this move hurts the customer.
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