by Jason Snell
Schiller details App Store revisions
Phil Schiller spoke to Lauren Goode at The Verge about changes to the App Store:
In a rare pre-WWDC sit-down interview with the The Verge, Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said that Apple would soon alter its revenue-sharing model for apps. While the well-known 70 / 30 split will remain, developers who are able to maintain a subscription with a customer longer than a year will see Apple’s cut drop down to 15 percent. The option to sell subscriptions will also be available to all developers instead of just a select few kinds of apps, “Now we’re going to open up to all categories,” Schiller says, “and that includes games, which is a huge category.”
This seems to be Apple sending a clear message that subscriptions are the future of the App Store. It’s an interesting solution to the problem of all app updates being free—I know a lot of people hate the idea of app subscriptions, but I’ve got a few of them now and it’s a pretty great experience.
Schiller also said that search ads are coming to the App Store. I’m a lot less excited about that one, despite his assurances that they’ll be very tasteful and helpful. (Jim Dalyrmple also spoke to Schiller, as did John Gruber.)