Does Apple Really Want to Sell Magazines?
In all the speculation that abounds on the Web about the possibilities of an Apple-designed tablet device that would compete with e-readers from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the like, I haven't seen a whole lot of discussion about one of the great mysteries of the idea: who would sell the content for such a device?
Wed, November 11, 2009
Macworld — In all the speculation that abounds on the Web about the possibilities of an Apple-designed tablet device that would compete with e-readers from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and the like, I haven't seen a whole lot of discussion about one of the great mysteries of the idea: who would sell the content for such a device?
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There are two likely answers to that question. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Let's take them in turn.
Apple sells content
It seems like many pundits are assuming that Apple is going to get into the business of selling books and newspapers and magazines just as it currently sells music and TV shows and movies. And it's a possibility, given the existing iTunes infrastructure.
In this scenario, Apple's devices (presumably not just a theoretical tablet, but the iPhone, iPod touch, and even the Mac) would gain support for reading "printed" matter downloaded directly from iTunes. On the iPhone and iPod touch (and perhaps the tablet), that support would most likely come in the form of an Apple-created reading-focused app. On the Mac, who knows? Perhaps an extension to iTunes or Preview, perhaps something new.
Apple would need to create a new set of iTunes storefronts for books, magazines, and newspapers, and would need to sign deals with major publishers. Publishers would need to present their content to Apple in a compatible format, which could be easy or hard, depending on if Apple were to support a common format or create something completely new. Knowing Apple, it will probably want to support a slick reading experience unlike anything experienced before. That spells more work for publishers and more work for Apple, since the company would need to build the reader and the publishing specifications for such an experience. But it's also possible that Apple will just embrace a format like PDF and move on, at which point things become much simpler.
Owners of subscription content, such as newspapers and magazines, would need to work with Apple so that they could sell content in year-long increments. The current iTunes TV Season Pass wouldn't work for this, because nobody would want to pay for a year of The New York Times in July and receive access to every issue published since January--the expectation of a periodical subscription is that it begins with the current issue and runs for a length of time. (There's a limited facility for subscriptions in the App Store, which could be adapted to work for publishers.)
