Texture app shutting down on May 28 in wake of Apple News+ launch

AppleInsider

Following the launch of its Apple News+ magazine subscription service, Apple is preparing to close down the standalone version of Texture for all users at the end of May, with the notice of closure urging customers to try out the new Apple News subscription instead.

Apple launched its long-rumored subscription feature for Apple News, titled Apple News+, on Monday alongside a host of other services. The announcement was a sign Texture's time was running out, something Apple confirmed on Friday via the Texture website.

The front page of the site warns "Texture is ending," before pointing users towards Apple News+ as its replacement. The page also includes a link advising of a one-month free trial for the service, which normally costs $9.99 per month.

Bought in March 2018, Texture provided access to digital magazines on a subscription, with hundreds of publications provided in a similar manner to Apple News+'s offering. It is largely believed the agreements and underlying technology of Texture was used to produce Apple News+.

According to the support pages, Texture will be operational until May 28, 2019. There is no word on whether existing subscriptions will stop for the app ahead of that date, or if there will be some form of pro-rating for charges until the app's end of life, but the site does confirm gift codes for Texture will no longer be honored.

While the closure of Texture will mean many users on Apple devices will simply move over to Apple News+, not all users will be affected the same way. Subscribers with Android devices will have to find an alternative service as Apple News+ is not available on that platform at this time.

steinm88299

This is one of the areas where Apple may find some risk. This is a news platform. There is no real reason this should not be available on Android or Windows platforms. Tying services revenue to your own hardware still puts some limits on your ability to maximize revenue. I know plenty of people who have iPads and Android phones. The new News app renders the magazines really well. Those people may well like the ability to read on their Android phones during the day without needing the iPad. 

paulcons

Masterful marketing strategy, lock out android... here are the numbers for share from 2/2018 to 2/2019:

Andriod: 74%
ios: 23%

And before y'all jump down my throat, I have been a HUGE fan of theirs since my first Mac in 1984, chances are before some of ya'll were born. I've spent more time than I care to calculate railing against apple haters... but find myself on too many recent occasions on that side.

vokbain

Crap. The magazine experience in Apple News+ sucks so much compared to Texture. I have the free trial right now, and it’s missing all the features that make Texture cool, like back issues, and automatically downloading new issues. And in Canada at least, it’s missing a ton of the magazines I usually read!

Since the Toronto Star content in News+ sucks too, I see no reason to bother paying for this garbage, unless some crazy changes happen to it in the next couple months. 

gatorguy

paulcons said:

Masterful marketing strategy, lock out android... here are the numbers for share from 2/2018 to 2/2019:

Andriod: 74%
ios: 23%

Not in the areas Apple will be serving with Apple News+. The US is Apple country. 

appleexposed

steinm88299 said:

This is one of the areas where Apple may find some risk. This is a news platform. There is no real reason this should not be available on Android or Windows platforms. Tying services revenue to your own hardware still puts some limits on your ability to maximize revenue. I know plenty of people who have iPads and Android phones. The new News app renders the magazines really well. Those people may well like the ability to read on their Android phones during the day without needing the iPad. 

Ridiculous. This would only make me upgrade my knockoff to a real iPhone.

paulcons said:

Masterful marketing strategy, lock out android... here are the numbers for share from 2/2018 to 2/2019:

Andriod: 74%
ios: 23%

And before y'all jump down my throat, I have been a HUGE fan of theirs since my first Mac in 1984, chances are before some of ya'll were born. I've spent more time than I care to calculate railing against apple haters... but find myself on too many recent occasions on that side.

Don't need your backstory. How many of those 74% who got their knockoff for 50 bucks will even pay for news?

That 23% is the most valuable customer base in tech history. Catering to knockoffs that stole Apples technology is a ridiculous strategy. Steve Jobs even agreed. 

dysamoria

Anticompetitive practices are starting to really look like what they are. Apple bought out a competitor to control an existing product while they prepared their own...

Please stop feeding late stage capitalism. The cancer gets worse when you feed it.

speedk1

Apple is slow to make changes but when revenue goes down, they will make the change. Remember when the iPad was available only at Apple outlets? Now you can buy the iPad at other retail outlets, so they will see that it may not be profitable in the long run to lose android customers.

gatorguy

AppleExposed said:

paulcons said:

Masterful marketing strategy, lock out android... here are the numbers for share from 2/2018 to 2/2019:

Andriod: 74%
ios: 23%

And before y'all jump down my throat, I have been a HUGE fan of theirs since my first Mac in 1984, chances are before some of ya'll were born. I've spent more time than I care to calculate railing against apple haters... but find myself on too many recent occasions on that side.

Don't need your backstory. How many of those 74% who got their knockoff for 50 bucks will even pay for news?

That 23% is the most valuable customer base in tech history. Catering to knockoffs that stole Apples technology is a ridiculous strategy. Steve Jobs even agreed. 

IMHO a lot of folks who buy an inexpensive smartphone do so because it's more than capable for what they use one for. I could easily afford a new $800 or even $1200 smartphone, but whay would I do so if it won't benefit me more? Example: I use a well-maintained first gen Pixel I bought for less than $200. It gets regular monthly updates, features updates from the latest Pixel models made backward compatible (Ie phone call and camera upgrades), and continuing into a fourth complete OS upgrade. Yet I pay for a music subscription, a cloud subscription, two magazines, a couple of premium web blogs... There a significant number of iPhone owners here at AI who also are happy to buy (or keep) an older model because it still works great for what they use a smartphone for. Does that make those iPhone owners cheap SOB's? Elitism isn't attractive to anyone but the one displaying it and a few like-minded. 

By the way since Apple "catered to iKnockoff users" with Apple Music they've now extended it to Chromebook users and soon coming to Chromecast devices too. Explain that one if not-Apple users are just cheap. Maybe Apple is just being a nice guy with free 90-day trials for the poor poor folks who would buy the latest iPhone if they could only afford one
/s

edited March 2019

notsofast

dysamoria said:

Anticompetitive practices are starting to really look like what they are. Apple bought out a competitor to control an existing product while they prepared their own...

Please stop feeding late stage capitalism. The cancer gets worse when you feed it.

You have to do some basic research on anti-trust law and on the facts. I'll leave you to do your own research on that topic, but here are some facts from one of the current survivors hanging on during late stage capitalism

1- Texture wasn't a competitor; Apple didn't offer a magazine subscription service.   
2-  You can buy everyone of the magazines and newspapers in Apple News Plus directly from the publisher or from dozens of sources including Amazon.
3-  There are multiple competitors selling all in one magazine subscriptions.

Facts matter.  

flydog

paulcons said:

Masterful marketing strategy, lock out android... here are the numbers for share from 2/2018 to 2/2019:

Andriod: 74%
ios: 23%

And before y'all jump down my throat, I have been a HUGE fan of theirs since my first Mac in 1984, chances are before some of ya'll were born. I've spent more time than I care to calculate railing against apple haters... but find myself on too many recent occasions on that side.

Texture’s revenue from Android devices as a percentage of Apple’s total revenue is microscopic; not even high enough to be a rounding error.  

flydog

dysamoria said:

Anticompetitive practices are starting to really look like what they are. Apple bought out a competitor to control an existing product while they prepared their own...

Please stop feeding late stage capitalism. The cancer gets worse when you feed it.

This seems like a smart move to me. Are companies supposed to just sit on their ass while their competitors prosper?

gatorguy

flydog said:

paulcons said:

Masterful marketing strategy, lock out android... here are the numbers for share from 2/2018 to 2/2019:

Andriod: 74%
ios: 23%

And before y'all jump down my throat, I have been a HUGE fan of theirs since my first Mac in 1984, chances are before some of ya'll were born. I've spent more time than I care to calculate railing against apple haters... but find myself on too many recent occasions on that side.

Texture’s revenue from Android devices as a percentage of Apple’s total revenue is microscopic; not even high enough to be a rounding error.  

Is iOS revenue from Texture also microscopic compared to Apple's total revenues? If so what was your point? You've seen the revenue figures and platform breakdowns, but the rest of us haven't AFAIK. Are the revenues so tiny it's not a good Apple investment to begin with, not worth the time and effort compared to the returns in your opinion? 

edited March 2019

patdodd

I have a subscription to texture paid up well into 2020 through gift subs. Wondering if I’ll get any credit for that when they shut it down? So far no response from texture support. 

wisey

vokbain said:

Crap. The magazine experience in Apple News+ sucks so much compared to Texture. I have the free trial right now, and it’s missing all the features that make Texture cool, like back issues, and automatically downloading new issues. And in Canada at least, it’s missing a ton of the magazines I usually read!

Since the Toronto Star content in News+ sucks too, I see no reason to bother paying for this garbage, unless some crazy changes happen to it in the next couple months. 

I agree.  Texture is much better than the magazine part of Apple News+.  I use Texture on my 12.9 inch iPad and it was like having all the current and back issues of 400 some magazines available to read.  There is no other service like this anywhere.  The quality was high and I even enjoyed seeing the ads.  Magazine ads are much higher quality than internet ads, to the point that you want to keep some of them.  If I were in the magazine publishing business, I would want have Texture.  If only this were available for scientific journals, I would be happy to pay more.  I think Apple should have kept Texture.  

nicholfd

vokbain said:

Crap. The magazine experience in Apple News+ sucks so much compared to Texture. I have the free trial right now, and it’s missing all the features that make Texture cool, like back issues, and automatically downloading new issues. And in Canada at least, it’s missing a ton of the magazines I usually read!

Since the Toronto Star content in News+ sucks too, I see no reason to bother paying for this garbage, unless some crazy changes happen to it in the next couple months. 

Every magazine I've checked has a year of back issues.  Open a magazine.  Tap the name of the magazine at the top of the screen.  You will see a horizontal scroll list of the last 12 issues.

Now, I think the UI sucks, and this is hard to discover (like all articles in the WSJ, the same way), but they are there.

justcurious..

Hello. Does anyone know if there's a way to connect our texture & news plus settings? For example all of our saved articles & older magazine issues- are they going to transfer, or we're going to have to start from scratch? I've looked all over but can't find this info anywhere. Thanks! 

mike wuerthele

JustCurious.. said:

Hello. Does anyone know if there's a way to connect our texture & news plus settings? For example all of our saved articles & older magazine issues- are they going to transfer, or we're going to have to start from scratch? I've looked all over but can't find this info anywhere. Thanks! 

We haven't found a way to link the two.

justcurious..

nicholfd said:

vokbain said:

Crap. The magazine experience in Apple News+ sucks so much compared to Texture. I have the free trial right now, and it’s missing all the features that make Texture cool, like back issues, and automatically downloading new issues. And in Canada at least, it’s missing a ton of the magazines I usually read!

Since the Toronto Star content in News+ sucks too, I see no reason to bother paying for this garbage, unless some crazy changes happen to it in the next couple months. 

Every magazine I've checked has a year of back issues.  Open a magazine.  Tap the name of the magazine at the top of the screen.  You will see a horizontal scroll list of the last 12 issues.

Now, I think the UI sucks, and this is hard to discover (like all articles in the WSJ, the same way), but they are there.

Thank you nicholfd! For some reason tapping the name of the magazine like that was just not obvious to me- so that's huge help! Thanks again! 😊 

jktucker58

I've been a Texture user since it was Next Issue and although it had a couple quirks, it was stellar compared to Apple News + which I just found out about today. After 30 minutes with it, I cancelled the trial and deleted the app. I will look for an alternative.