No. The blame for the hold up falls on both Apple and the publishers. Apple already owns users data. iTunes accounts. Its those accounts that the publishers wanted so badly to serve ads. The publishers want access to users information which Apple is reluctant to give away.
This is exactly one of the reasons I love Apple. I have been on a list of lapsed subscribers for a major mag and the constant harassment by them to sign back up was almost illegal.
Put it this way, I haven't subscribed to any mag (despite the higher cost) since and that was 17 years ago.
I'm very happy Apple have kept my details from these people.
Besides the high price, you can't just share the issue with someone unless you want to share the iPad.
I think that those of us with subscriptions to the print version should get the iPad version it for half price, at least...
Expectations of lower pricing on electronic media are nothing new. Nothing about changing the way media content is served determines what the exact end price will be. Publishers do have to run the numbers. They are going to incur a lot of extra costs transitioning to something that reads on the ipad and other comparable devices. In the longer term, the potential exists to add in small amounts of video content, links to what is worn in a fashion a spread, etc. You drop some of the distribution costs associated with printed media, but pick up a lot of other potential costs, so it's hard to say what the price really should be. Designing to a price point often means having to cut a lot of content, and anecdotal opinions on what percentage it should be are really silly. I'd be interested in seeing any genuine market research into what people are willing to pay for digitized versions of magazines they previously read.
A 1 year subscription to Esquire is available on Zinio for $8. Granted this is closer to a print sub than a souped up app, but still. I would want a lot of pizzazz in that app for the equivalent of $60/year.
Agreed completely. I will not buy any of these magazine apps. Zinio works fine for me. I bought a new Popular Science subscription once Bonnier stopped being jerks and offered it on Zinio again. $10 for the Zinio subscription sure beats the old $60/year app Popular Science+ purchases, although they've finally reduced that to an only slightly less irksome $36/year.
Quote:
Originally Posted by raybo
Besides the high price, you can't just share the issue with someone unless you want to share the iPad.
With Zinio, there is a small way to do that, at least. You're allowed four devices to read on, be they iDevices, Macs or PCs. Just give your friends your account info to sign on with and assuming you stay under the limit, you and up to three friends can share.
Comments
I think that those of us with subscriptions to the print version should get the iPad version it for half price, at least...
No. The blame for the hold up falls on both Apple and the publishers. Apple already owns users data. iTunes accounts. Its those accounts that the publishers wanted so badly to serve ads. The publishers want access to users information which Apple is reluctant to give away.
This is exactly one of the reasons I love Apple. I have been on a list of lapsed subscribers for a major mag and the constant harassment by them to sign back up was almost illegal.
Put it this way, I haven't subscribed to any mag (despite the higher cost) since and that was 17 years ago.
I'm very happy Apple have kept my details from these people.
An hour to backup Wired... I've read other people have it even worse.
Besides the high price, you can't just share the issue with someone unless you want to share the iPad.
I think that those of us with subscriptions to the print version should get the iPad version it for half price, at least...
Expectations of lower pricing on electronic media are nothing new. Nothing about changing the way media content is served determines what the exact end price will be. Publishers do have to run the numbers. They are going to incur a lot of extra costs transitioning to something that reads on the ipad and other comparable devices. In the longer term, the potential exists to add in small amounts of video content, links to what is worn in a fashion a spread, etc. You drop some of the distribution costs associated with printed media, but pick up a lot of other potential costs, so it's hard to say what the price really should be. Designing to a price point often means having to cut a lot of content, and anecdotal opinions on what percentage it should be are really silly. I'd be interested in seeing any genuine market research into what people are willing to pay for digitized versions of magazines they previously read.
A 1 year subscription to Esquire is available on Zinio for $8. Granted this is closer to a print sub than a souped up app, but still. I would want a lot of pizzazz in that app for the equivalent of $60/year.
Agreed completely. I will not buy any of these magazine apps. Zinio works fine for me. I bought a new Popular Science subscription once Bonnier stopped being jerks and offered it on Zinio again. $10 for the Zinio subscription sure beats the old $60/year app Popular Science+ purchases, although they've finally reduced that to an only slightly less irksome $36/year.
Besides the high price, you can't just share the issue with someone unless you want to share the iPad.
With Zinio, there is a small way to do that, at least. You're allowed four devices to read on, be they iDevices, Macs or PCs. Just give your friends your account info to sign on with and assuming you stay under the limit, you and up to three friends can share.