Apple has announced a new subscription service for iOS read: recurring in-app purchases. Apps will be able to take advantage of Apple’s system but publishers are required to give Apple a 30% cut and are not allowed to raise the price of subscription to accomodate the lost revenue. Content makers still have the option of managing subscriptions externally bypassing Apple’s new subscription management service where they’d keep 100% of revenue as per usual.

• The benefit to subscribers is increased privacy control with your name and email address, and you can subscribe to more content without worrying if the publisher has safeguards for your credit card information.
• The benefit to publishers is that it’s easier to build a reputation for content. The alternative route would be to make an app and give free subscriptions until you build a reputation and then setup a whole billing mechanism and suddenly start charging your subscribers – which is a bumpier ride.

Google also just announced Google One Pass which is essentially the same concept but with a focus on the internet as a whole and built as an extension to their Google Checkout system. The key difference between the two services is that Apple is offering an optional subscription management system for apps in their app stores, while Google is offering one for the entire internet and mobile apps “who’s mobile OS terms permit transactions outside of the app market.” Unless Apple blocks using the One Pass API via their terms – like they did when Adobe added compile for iOS as an option in Flash Professional CS5, it seems like iOS market share will be the ground under contention here.

On the other hand Apple would likely negotiate separate deals with the big publishers, and having more subscription options for up and coming publishers – even if they’re not getting that 30% cut, still means more content targeted for iOS. With more and more apps being made with Android as a primary consideration Apple stands to gain by opening it’s doors to One Pass letting those publishers consolidate subscriptions in one service. I guess we’ll see how this evolves.

[Apple, Google] via [Ars Technica]