Consumer frustration regarding Apple’s unwillingness to sell magazine subscriptions for the iPad is on the increase. While the iPad was supposed to revolutionise digital publishing and distribution, lots of frustrated iPad users are becoming more fed up with what they see as a controlling attitude by the Apple corporation.
For a high tech device that is supposed to replicate and eventually replace print media, it is rather incredible that the iPad does not provide such a basic service – the ability to subscribe to magazines. If an iPad user wants to read a copy of the latest Time magazine, it will cost them $4.99. If they want to continue getting access to each issue, they have no opportunity to subscribe on an annual basis.
This means that a year’s worth of Time magazines on the iPad comes to a whopping $260, as opposed to 56 issues in print that costs only $20 – hardly a revolution! If the iPad really is the future of digital publishing, it needs to allow magazine subscriptions sooner rather than latter.
No-one seems to be happy with this state of affairs, a fact made even more obvious when you check out the iPad Time App reviews on the iPad website. Of nearly 6,300 reviews, the average rating for the Time magazine App is a mere 1.5 stars out of a potential 5. The big question is – if people are this unhappy with the current state of affairs, why do Apple seem to be doing absolutely nothing to change it.
While iPad users have been unhappy about this issue for a long time, this recent news falls on the back of a failed meeting between Apple and Time Warner. In trying to set up a subscription scenario for one of their magazines – Sports Illustrated, the Time Warner application was rejected at the last minute by Apple. Apple are giving no reason for its decision – as per usual – leaving iPad users to come to their own conclusions.
Forums and blogs all over the net are full of comments about this issue, with many iPad users basically calling Apple greedy and insulated in regard to its approach. With Google and Amazon also trying to solve the problem of how to maximise profits from magazine subscriptions, it will be interesting to see how this issue develops in the coming months.
“While iPad users have been unhappy about this issue for a long time” .. so for a month eh?
I’ve used Zinio for almost a year on my Macbook, and subscribe to multiple digital magazines. After buying my iPad 3G, I got the Zinio app for the iPad and it shares my subscriptions with the MacBook, no extra charge. The Zinio digital subscriptions cost the same as print media subscriptions, but are far superior as they sometimes have interactive issues. Zinio also downloads free magazine articles from many magazines every month, very nice. If you like the article you can buy the whole issue. Nice free feature!
Hello people, there are digital subscriptions available, at reasonable cost (stay away from rip-offs like Time!).