Vergecast raised an interesting point. Spotify and others have quickly submitted apps which will steer users to purchase IAP and subscriptions through their own site, avoiding paying the Apple commission.
But what will they offer users to get them to enter their credit card and billing details on their sites versus just purchasing through the App Store, which already has their billing information?
If Spotify or other streaming services were charging $10 a month for streaming services through the App Store, will the offer the subscription for $7, $8 or $9, at least temporarily, to get users to create accounts with billing information with them?
Most users would jump at the chance to get a 20% or more discount on their subscriptions. But will they for 10% discount?
There is a hassle factor and risk of your billing information being hacked, the more places you store this information.
So what will be the calculus most users make to create accounts with Spotify or another streaming service in addition to the App Store?
For a lot of these users, they probably already have accounts with Spotify, certainly Netflix and Amazon Prime, probably Disney and Hulu as well. I subscribed to Disney Hulu on one of those Black Friday deals, so Apple isn't getting any of the $2.99 I pay a month to Disney/Hulu. Certainly reasonable, Disney promoted this special deal through other channels than the App Store and I subscribed directly and I didn't even download the Disney + app until I created my account.
But lesser known services may not have formal financial relationships with their iOS users, who may mostly be purchasing IAP or subscriptions through the App Store.
That's what these services selling subscriptions may have to do, offer special promotions, which is part of the acquisition cost for each new subscriber, rather than depend on discovery by users through the high traffic in the App Store.
In this case, Disney essentially discounted $8 a month for a year off their normal price. Though this is the ad tier, so I suspect they make money at $2.99 a month as they would at $10.99 a month.
But it's certainly a lot more than the 30% of the 10.99 they'd pay to Apple if I subscribed through the app.
I don't know if these services have offered that kind of promotion through their apps, the kind of impulse buying that a lot of people do around BF because there are steep discounts from nominal prices.
