BNXS

Remember the story about the new Apple subscription rules that the company was subjecting its developers to? Well there has been a myriad of comments and reactions towards this. In yesterday’s article having a worthy competitor come up fast seemed as the only quick solution for the publishers. Now the disgruntled publishers’ wish has come true. Google has jumped in the game and is hoping to make the best out of this situation. There could never be a better moment than this for Apple’s rival company to attract customers for its digital content service.

Google has announced its Google One Pass. The service which has been fashioned as an attractive alternative to Apple’s subscription service will be cheaper to use. Through Google One Pass, online publishers will be allowed to set up their digital content on the Web and mobile apps using an already existing payment service from Google, Google Checkout. The price for this service is much lower than apple’s 30 percent cut as publishers only pay Google 10 percent. Further more accessing the content will be easier for readers. All they will be required to do is to use their Gmail address and password to access the content from a number of devices.

So far the One Pass service covers online newspapers and magazines only. The service will share the customers’ information (name, e-mail address and ZIP code) unless the customer opts out. The other attractive thing about the service is that publishers are free to set their own prices and also decide when and how they get to charge for content. Publishers have a number of ways through which they may sell their content. The best approach would be to experiment with them to figure out which one suits them the best. The models include: selling single articles, offering subscriptions, “freemium content” and meters access.

It gets even better with Google One Pass allowing publishers to give their existing print subscribers free or discounted access to their digital content. With these kinds of incentives maybe Apple ought to rethink their stand on the content based subscription rules. Already clients such as Rhapsody have opted out of the iTunes because the 30 percent monthly fee just does not make business sense to them. The company will instead offer its services through a smartphone browser.

The 30 percent fee could be Apple’s own undoing as many producers of online content pursue other marketing avenues aggressively. Google has acted fast to come to the rescue of these producers and Apple maybe thinking that all this is nothing and the dust will settle down in a few days. It may settle down yes but the results may be much less than desired than Apple. Remember that Rhapsody is ganging up with undisclosed peers to address the matter legally. Many people had already become dependent on Apples apps but life is dynamic and change is the rule rather than exception. When put in a desperate situation producers may be willing to develop apps for an alternative platform.