Will Apple’s New Subscription Model Succeed or Fail?

With the announcement of Apple’s new subscriptions model, there have been mixed emotions popping up left, right and center around the web.

Publishers are crying fowl Apple is taking a 30% cut of subscriptions, and some have even brought up anti-trust issues against this new policy (?!). What exactly is Apple introducing here with their new subscription model?

The following graphic summarizes the ‘meat’ of the new policy:

Will you Allow or Disallow your information being shared?

Consumers will also have choice when it comes to privacy. They have a say in the matter whether or not publishers will have full access to our information. This is good for us, as we can prevent getting spammed to death. Publishers argue this information is critical for market research, and are unhappy about it.

As a consumer, I want the best price and value. Competition is my best friend. How Apple wants to deal with publishers–hey, that’s out of my control. Jean-Louis Gassée, a former Apple executive from the 80s sums it up (via @gruber):

So will this new subscription model succeed or fail? We don’t know–the market will decide. Consumers will speak with their wallets. If this doesn’t work out, Apple surely can change their policy. In the meantime, companies that don’t agree can also try other smartphone platforms (Android, RIM, webOS, Nokia-soft), right?

Will big publishers have the guts to pull their apps from the Apple ecosystem, of over 120 million iOS devices and over 100 million iTunes accounts with credit cards? Is Apple going to revolutionize digital subscriptions, like how they transformed the music industry?

[WSJ]