Apple Broadens Subscription-Billing Service Beyond News Corp.'s 'Daily'
Apple (APPL) is broadening the content subscription-billing service it started earlier this month -- with News Corp.'s (NWS)The Daily electronic newspaper -- to other magazines, newspapers, video providers and other content sources, as the company looks to further benefit from the growing contingent of people getting their news on portable devices.
Apple will sell the service on its Apps store and will take a 30% commission, just like it does on all other apps it sells, the company said in a statement Tuesday.
"We believe that this innovative subscription service will provide publishers with a brand new opportunity to expand digital access to their content onto the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone, delighting both new and existing subscribers," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in the statement.
The company is banking on a rapidly expanding base of people who will get news exclusively from tablet computers -- such as the iPad Apple introduced last year. Global shipments of mini notebooks, tablet and touch-screen computers will surge sixfold, to about 122 million units in 2016 from around 20 million units in 2010, NPD Group's DisplaySearch division said in October.
Apple started the service earlier this month when News Corp. launched The Daily, the first newspaper designed exclusively to be read on tablet computers. The newspaper, which will charge $39.99 a year for a subscription, will publish as many as 100 pages each day, with sections for news, sports, gossip, opinion and the arts.
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