You may have seen the recent announcement by Apple that they now offer a subscription service for Apps.

“You can now offer an easy one-click experience for auto-renewable digital subscriptions in your iOS content-based apps on the App Store. Auto-Renewable Subscriptions allow users to purchase In-App content, and the purchase is automatically renewed at the end of the period unless the user chooses to cancel the subscription.” Apple email

I asked my friend,  Jason Franzen, VP of Development and US Operations with [x]cube LABS, to help me understand what this means and he offered the following four (4) observations.

1. NO SUBSCRIPTIONS BEFORE –  Subscriptions were not previously available; before this, Apps and content could only be purchased once and would have to be re-purchased manually by users.

2. SUBSCRIPTIONS NOW AVAILABLE – Apps can include an option for a user to AUTOMATICALLY receive new content and be charged for it on a recurring basis.  A Monthly or Annual renewal can be offered and the user will be charged accordingly.

3. EASY, IMMEDIATE CANCELLATION – Users can cancel at any time and end the subscription immediately.

4. MATCH REAL-WORLD OFFERS – Apps that offer off-line/web-based/physical subscriptions must offer the same or better subscription pricing within the app or risk being rejected by Apple.  This is a somewhat sticky/gray area right now and anything that is recreating an off-line content should be checked against Apple’s rules on this matter.

For more information, contact your local Apple Developer or myself at jratkins@SomethingDifferentCompanies.com