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BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS
Apple Keeps the Mobile Mojo Moving .jpg) company’s presentation. But don't be deceived by the misdirected hype surrounding a new iPhone. As expected at yesterday’s WWDC developers conference, Apple rolled out a major price cut for its existing 3G iPhones (now $99) and introduced the third generation of the phone, the iPhone 3GS with upgraded hardware. But the big news for publishers had little to do with hardware. Apple announced that its long-promised version 3.0 operating system for the iPhone will launch earlier than many of us expected. This major upgrade to the functionality of the iPhone platform will be pushed out to owners on June 17.The chief attraction of iPhone OS 3.0 for media brands is the new marketplace billing system. Until now publishers basically had two models to choose from in distributing downloadable apps: charge once up front for unlimited use or let the app go free to users. Apple is now allowing publishers to charge for content within the app and according to any model they like. In essence, this clears the way for subscriber plans and for incremental content upgrades. Dubbed “In-App Purchasing” by Apple, the model lets a publisher create a subscription system so that a user can renew paid access from within the app. Publishers could sell content incrementally as well. For instance, a news or celebrity headlines consumer might be able to buy a video clip or access to specific areas of content in an app. All billing is handled by Apple in the same way app purchases are managed and split, with 70% of revenue going to the content provider. A publisher could sell access to its mobile games section, for example, or sell personalization content like mobile wallpapers by the piece and on the spot. Imagine a button in Style.com’s mobile app that lets a user tap on any runway image and turn it into wallpaper for the phone. The most appealing aspect of the new model is its flexibility. Publishers can experiment with a number of different subscription or paid access plans to see what does and doesn’t work. A publisher might use the In-App Purchase model to create a freemium approach. Users can download the app for free, but deeper access to content requires additional fees. With a smidgen of applied intelligence, the iPhone payment system could serve as a kind of lab for fee-based content ideas. Also important for publishers will be Apple's new content push notification system. Now applications can inform you through a unified alert system that new content is ready for you to pull into an app. Call it semi-push. The content itself is not pushed to the app until you open the program. But the system does let a publisher send users headline alerts that call up the app. This approach may help alleviate one of the most vexing problems in mobile media—forgettability. Many users download apps they never use or forget are even there. An alert system lets a publisher push its brand back in front of a user. An alert system could also be tied to the paid content model so that publishers use push alerts to highlight and merchandise fee-based offers. As the mobile ecosystem evolves, publishers will need to find more intimate ways of maintaining a more conversational relationship with users on a platform that is, after all, still a talking device at heart. If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com COMMENTS
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