Apple quietly drops special subscription requirements for iOS apps

via Ars Technica

Apple has quietly revised its iOS app review guidelines to loosen the restrictions it … Read More >>

Breaking: Apple announces digital magazine subscription model

Apple announced the terms of their new digital magazine subscription model yesterday in an agreement with app developer and digital publisher Texterity, which they posted on their web site last night. It clears up a number of concerns to the publishing industry, and finally clears the hurdle for existing subscribers of print content not having to pay again for a digital version of the same magazine.

From the Texterity Web Post:

Publishers can sell print subscriptions, and offer “digital companion” access through an app as long as there is no additional fee for those subscribers. It’s a way to offer another incentive for print subs to stay loyal and engaged.

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iPad Usage Survey Results offers a few surprises, and confirms the rapid growth and success of the device

Two-thirds of iPad owners use their iPads 1-5 hours a day.

via businessinsider.com

Click through to Business Insider’s survey findings for the latest insights in how the iPad is being used, or read on to check out Polymash’s favorites with some surprising statistics:

iPad iOS 4.2 update delayed by 2 weeks, originally scheduled for Nov 11 [UPDATE]

iPad home screen in iOS 4.2

UPDATE: It appears that due to a serious last minute WIFI connection issue the iPad’s iOS 4.2 release, planned for Friday November 11,  will be delayed, and the forseeable impact is that the public release will be postponed by 2 weeks. The connection issues have been posted on Macrumors forum (here and here) as well as on Twitter and Apple’s internal discussion boards.

Hopefully this will still mean a pre-Thanksgiving launch, and we are looking forward to long awaited iPad features such as

• Multitasking (AKA fast application switching),
• Airprint and Airplay features.
• Homepage and Spotlight upgrades
• Folders
• Widgets
• Introduction of Gamecenter

For a nice walkthrough of the features, and to find out exactly what is included in the upcoming iPad release, visit our friends at TiPb and click here for the full feature list

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.

GenY – Is Content Still King?

According to an attitudinal research study completed by Resonate Research, 18-34 year olds purchasing behaviors are influenced by both the products value, the aspirational aspect of a product’s brand message, and also by it’s “cool” factor.

From the press release: This group is more passionate about social issues like energy (36% more than the 35 plus online population), climate change (48% more) and animal rights (24% more). However, in general they are 15% – 25% less likely to make purchase decisions based on their issues of importance. Instead they look to products for external validation, meaning they buy products that convey and reward their success and personal achievement. When compared to the 35 plus online population, 18 – 34 year olds are more likely to purchase based on the following brand attributes: innovation, looks, popularity and prestige. In fact, they are five times more likely than their elders to purchase a product that is viewed as prestigious, and over twice as likely to buy a popular product or a product that is aesthetically appealing.

Business usage and applications for iPad are on the rise.

Lloyd’s underwriters are testing the iPad’s usefulness in the insurance market. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

For centuries, insurance brokers could be seen in the City clutching bundles of papers in leather slipcases. But the underwriting slip, detailing a risk to be placed on the Lloyd’s of London market, could soon be a thing of the past.

Lloyd’s of London has begun a pilot scheme to replace underwriting slips with iPads, Apple‘s tablet computer (right), which has become a runaway success since its launch this year.

via guardian.co.uk

B2B applications and opportunties for the iPad are increasing, the latest being Lloyds of London. If a staunchy insurance agent can mobilize their workforce with a tablet device, to me the is a surefire message in there that more widespread acceptance of tablet devices in the businessnmarket is imminent.

While it seems that such mobile opportunities should have existed for the iPhone already, the form factor difference is a clear factor here.

And also revealing is the fact that such specialized and niche apps are developed in low quantities in he B2B world, where volume based revenue from app store sales are not a factor.

Digital Magazines and Books need to Evolve!

This was a week for some great ideas to emerge on how tablet platforms and digital readers need to evolve in terms of functionality, features, user experience, social media integration.

Now that the iPad has been on the market for some time and a slew of other tablets are about to drop, usage and behavior patterns are starting to emerge, and ideas on extending tablet functionality are becoming more concrete.

Here at Polymash we have been humbly completing work on extending tablet magazine reader functionality for the information product and educational market, adding plug-in features such as in magazine notepads and social media integration for Apple and Android platforms.

But for a more comprehensive and compelling glimpse at future possibilities, I’d invite you to check out this video from IDEO entitled The Future of the Book

My favorite concepts here:

• The idea that interactivity needs to extend to participatory and community based discussions about the material being read. (Ideo calls this “Nelson”)
• The idea to link to book clubs, reading lists and recommendation engines (Copeland)
• Ideo also proposes a concept (Alice), which allows for co-creating the story, affecting the plot, interacting with characters and so on, and while I love the idea I do see it more in the realm off app and game development.

However long term the creation of truly interactive content will blur the line between app development and content creation…

Frankfurt Book Fair

Also this week the Frankfurt Book Fair took place, and following twitter feeds and blog entries it was apparent that there was much tablet talk and discussion. I’d like to share Joe Wikert’s presentation he gave “My eContent Wish List–Frankfurt TOC 2010” as posted on slideshare, which mirrors some of VIMEO’s vision in a perhaps more pragmatic way:

Having worked with, and around, the limitations of today’s tablet reader technology, the critical element to me is to create platform independent APIs that allow developers to directly access and interface to the publications content

My favorites:

• Platform independent readers, with platform independent APIs
• Better Social Media integration, for example tweeting from within and article or story
• The ability to highlight and annotate content, and then be able to share, archive, collect and search these annotations across publications

There are some great ideas in these presentations, and I hope publishing houses and tool makers in the tablet industry are listening and adjusting to the market needs being formulated.