Publishers Feel Betrayed By Apple's In-App Purchase Requirement

European publishers feel betrayed by Apple's latest move to force content providers to sell their content via in-app purchase taking a 30% cut of all sales.

Apple says, "We are now requiring that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app with in-app purchase."


Grzegorz Piechota, the European president of the International Newsmedia Marketing Association which represents some 5,000 members in 80 countries worldwide, told MocoNews that the INMA will be meeting with the European Online Publishers Association and the magazine association FIPP in a invitation-only roundtable on February 17 in London to discuss the policy.

"Some say they feel betrayed," said Grzegorz Piechota, European resident of the INMA. "They believed that it would be a great way to access content from newspapers and magazines. So they hyped the iPad, and many of them invested in apps for it."

"By promoting these apps, they promoted the device. Publishers in fact helped to make the iPad successful on the market."

There is some concern that Apple could expand this In-App purchase requirement to other areas such as retail.