iPad and Android Tablet and iPad apps: five monetization strategies

Subscription workarounds

In-app single purchases

Advertising

Location-based offerings

Social media sharing and aggregation

via emediavitals.com

Click throught for a nice summary post from Prescott Shible’s blog on current digital magazine monetization options.

I fully agree with the fact that the biggest current challenge is offering robust subscription models for tablet magazines, but also think that with upcoming solutions from Adobe and other major tool providers, the negative aspects of in app purchases will soon be addressed, in terms of being able to provide tracking intelligence of in app user activities and behaviors.

Can Apps Save Content Publishers?

Can Apps “Save” Content Publishers? Apps have helped bring shuttered magazines like Gourmet back from the dead, and take publications like Wired to the peak of popularity. But can apps “save” all digital publishers from dwindling online CPMs? Are they the magic bullet for getting readers (and advertisers) to pay for content?

Leading publishers and facilitators like Kargo, who have helped publishers like Wenner and Consumer Reports land in the winner’s circle at the SAMMY Awards, shed light on how they’ve monetized their content with both paid apps and appvertising.

via digidaydaily.com

Great video from a content publisher’s view on tablet devices.

Why the Slingplayer for iPhone App was rejected by the App Store

According to reports this morning, the much anticipated “Slingplayer for iPhone” app has been rejected from the app store, apparently at the request of ATT, who are concerned about “bandwidth issues”.

However, I think this is a mis-direction, as I would point out that there is already currently a Windows Mobile version of Slingplayer that is fully functioning over ATT’s 3G as well as over Edge networks.

Rather I think ATT is using it’s iPhone monopoly to position it’s own video service that will be launched later this year.

I think the critical difference here is that ATT’s monopoly as service provider for the iPhone is strongly trending into consumer unfriendly lack of options, applications, innovation and flexibility.

We may see a WiFi only version of the Slingplayer (like Skype), but how does that compare to the fully enabled version for Windows Mobile?

According to PC Reports:

Meanwhile, another possible reason for SlingPlayer‘s ban from the App Store could be AT&T’s speculated plans for its own mobile video services. The wireless carrier silently changed its terms of service at the end of March, basically prohibiting services like Sling is offering from its network.

But if AT&T won’t get to keep its exclusivity with the iPhone, maybe this kind of won’t happen anymore. That would allow users a bit more freedom with which apps they can get on their phone and how they actually use their (already capped)

mobile Internet.

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Polymash Prediction: Monetization features of OS 3.0 will change the iPhone app landscape completely

I was following today’s iPhone OS3 announcement live event, and one thing in particular struck me:

Most of the advancements are focused on the app developer community, and while I agree that these will enable this community to produce far better and innovative apps, one feature in particular I think will change the application landscape for the iPhone completely: the ability to have optional paid content and subscription models within an app.

iPhone 3.0 in-application payments

In general I am in favor of multiple business models for developers to monetize their apps, however I do see this eventually resulting in a completely changed application landscape compared to what we know today, where freemium vs. free will reign, and where I believe a majority of applications will have limited functionality and some sort of premium concept.

Now Apple promised that free applications will indeed remain free, “no new taxes, read my lips”… But I think the temptation for re-designing existing apps to build in monetization will prove too tempting for the app dev community, and will result in fewer free apps in general, and fewer choices for consumers eventually.

Additionally, the concept of getting prompted via a fairly intrusive pop-up boxes to purchase content, or sign up for a subscription, rankles me a bit. My iPhone experience is based on being used to pay for an app once, and then enjoy seamless service, and the user experience of reading something only to be then prompted for premium content mid-stream does not sit well with me. Signing a once a year subscription may be OK too, if I value the service, but I don’t know if I’ll like to “pay as you go” for content.

Let’s hope that the bevy of OS3 features announced will make it all worth it in the end, and that the resulting increase in innovative apps will be just so cool, we will all be happy to pay for them, one subscription at a time.

What do you think?

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• The iPhone OS 3.0 Announcement Scorecard (mobilecrunch.com)