Netflix Permanently Pulls iTunes Billing For New and Returning Users (venturebeat.com) 108
An anonymous reader shares a report: Netflix is further distancing itself from Apple's 15% iTunes tax bracket. Earlier this year, the streaming giant enabled iOS users in more than two dozen markets to bypass the iTunes payment method as part of an experiment. The company now tells VentureBeat that it has concluded the experiment and has incorporated the change globally. "We no longer support iTunes as a method of payment for new members," a Netflix spokesperson told VentureBeat. Existing members, however, can continue to use iTunes as a method of payment, the spokesperson added. Additionally, the support rep added that customers who are rejoining Netflix using an iOS device, after having canceled payment for at least one month, also won't be able to use iTunes billing. The move, which will allow Netflix to keep all proceeds from its new paying iPhone and iPad customers, underscores the tension between developers and the marquee distributors of mobile apps -- Apple and Google.
Re: 15% discount (Score:1, Insightful)
Did Netflix charge an extra 15% to iTunes Netflix subscribers or did they eat the cost of the Apple tax?
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I expect it is like most credit cards, where they are contractually agreed to charge the same amount with the card and pay the fee as they would do if they paid cash.
I am unsure if some gas stations are breaking the contract, when they offer the Cash Price, or there is a different set of rules for Fuel.
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That's not a legal contract in the US. The ones I've read say that they may not upcharge for using the credit card. So, the VISA price is the same as the store price, which is the retail price. The difference is subtle, but legally important.
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Apple charging FIFTEEN fucking percent is usury.
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Cash has to be counted - employee time is not free.
Cash is a theft magnet (both from employees and robberies) - safes, cameras & other security measures are not free.
You have to have enough cash on hand to make change. You are constantly getting small denominations and depositing large denominations. Employee time to go to the bank is not free. Armored car delivery (if you are not in an area where it is safe to send employees to the bank) is not free.
Credit cards can reconcile automatically. They dep
Re: 15% discount (Score:2)
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Prior to Apple Music streaming existing, you could buy a Spotify subscription via iTunes and it cost either $1 or $2 (I donÃ(TM)t recall exactly) more than buying from Spotify directly.
Spotify is of course allowed to have different prices, depending on where you subscribe.
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It varies from Stste to State, so it depends on where you live:
Eleven states—California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas—and Puerto Rico have laws that prohibit merchants from charging consumers with surcharges on credit card transactions.
Ten states—California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oklahoma, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming—and Puerto Rico have laws that allow merchants to give discounts to
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Perspective [me.me] seems to color the interpretation of the law.
News Channel on your side Florida Florida man tells cops he didn't drink while driving, only at stop signs.
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Because it doesn't cost Apple money to transfer from your account to an other. There is a big infrastructure behind it with security settings, rules, and risk from fraud...
When you buy the hardware you paid for the hardware, and you actually paid for the software updates and security fixes too, factored in in the price. The locking down to the store, isn't a guarantee revenue from you either, the free apps on the store are available to you for free, at apples loss.
Now 15% for Netflix seems too high. But A
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Why should they? (Score:4, Interesting)
Netflix has a name for itself. 15% is way too much for a service with that much name behind it.
For the small company, paying with iTunes is probably a safer bet, as they can bank their payments behind Apples goodwill (This is an accounting goodwill, not charitable goodwill). Customers know Apple payments and more or less trust it is secure or at least if it goes too wrong a big company can backup the losses. But for Netflix this isn't the case. I have just as much trust giving Netflix my Credit Card number as I do giving it to Apple.
Apple should realize that and probably give them a discount on their fee amount, as the key service they would be offering Netflix would be just payment option convince, which would probably put it in the 5% Territory.
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I think you are confused. This is paying for the Netflix service with iTunes instead of your credit card. So you pay Apple and Apple Pays Netflix. This is more akin to why some stores may not accept American Express or Discover, because its processing fees are too high.
Integration into Apple TV isn't that big of a thing, Apple Rairly cares about Apple TV, they put just a little bit more effort in it then their Macintosh Lineup.
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Producing a physical TV that doesn't have integrated alternative services is such a winner nowadays, too!
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I don't think it
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The biggest issue within iOS relative to this change is that, if you do not accept Apple's tax on the digital good/subscription (which is why the percentage is lower; subscriptions get a reduced percentage), then Apple prevents you from using your own billing systems and Apple also blocks your app from telling users how to become subscribers, such as by linking to your website and using a browser.
That's the risk that Netflix has been weighing: do they have the clout to get users to simply -- out of likely f
Re: Why should they? (Score:1)
The reason Apple requires app payments only thru iTunes in its apps is to reduce fraud and protect their customers. People will by assume any payment coming through an app has some sort of security and if something goes wrong like their cc gets stolen will blame Apple. Allowing shady companies to "charge" customers is a much bigger negative to Apple than Netflix having users go outside of the app because then customers are more likely to understand its Netflix they are dealing with not Apple.
For many small
Re:Why should they? (Score:4, Informative)
15% already makes it seem as though they were getting a discount. Unless Apple changed, I recall the old cut used to be around 30% which was considered pretty standard across platforms like Apple's store.
A while ago Apple changed their policy - it’s 30% during your app’s first year, then 15% afterward.
Shortly after Apple made that change, Google matched them.
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Netflix has a name for itself. 15% is way too much for a service with that much name behind it.
I agree that at this point Netflix is so big they probably do not need iTunes...
But I do wonder if they will loose some subscribers as a result, for those who simply do not want to use other billing methods...
I would never have subscribed to HBO for example without iTunes, because of the risk of canceling being too annoying. But even though iTunes obscures where you go to cancel subscriptions, I feel a LOT better
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Unless you travel outside the US. Then 90% of the titles are "not available in your area," and the only way to know which ones is by actually trying to watch one. Before that moment there's no indication at all. It's close to useless. Ridiculous customer experience.
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This is actually a very interesting point. And probably a good chance why companies HATE using Apple as the payment processor. Because Apple first hides p
Nonsensical, what "chargeback" (Score:2)
Use a gift card? Man, you fan boys are stupid.
Do feel free to humor me, what the hell do you even mean here. This made zero sense.
Also, HBO is huge and won't be shady and be difficult to stop.
Ask me how I know you have never had cable.
Also, there's a credit card chargeback, even then.
Even when? What on earth are you talking about here?
If I subscribe to HBO on iTunes there is no "chargeback". If I cancel HBO when I choose, it finishes out the month I paid for and then it's over - HBO never had my card so
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I already give it to Apple, so for me I want to avoid giving it to anyone else. Even if Netflix is an equal risk, it still doubles it.
Next Week's Story (Score:2)
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Wouldn't it be great if hardware manufacturers and digital content creators were separate businesses?
Re:Next Week's Story (Score:4, Interesting)
Wouldn't it be great if hardware manufacturers and digital content creators were separate businesses?
Apple's not new to it, though.
Back in the day, a Polaroid Camera was dirt cheap,
What was expensive was the Polaroid film - Because Polaroid wasn't in the camera business - They were in the film business, and you could only put Polaroid film in a Polaroid camera.
Same reason Kodak ignored the digital camera business, even though they held the patents. Kodak was a film company, not a camera company.
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You are confusing content and consumables. Film by no imaginable way is content, it is a consumable, there is a huge difference between content and consumable, even one negating the other, ie toilet paper and faeces, a fun simile for current Hollywood content, whether film or digital storage, toilet paper or a Japanese style toilet, I suppose.
They are simply competing electronic publishers and even if it cost Netflix more, why feed you competing enemy if you do not absolutely need to. Apple has to choice t
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Apple has to choice to compete against Netflix it has to separate it's publishing from it's hardware but if it does that it reduces it's opportunity to sell it's hardware with higher profit margins
They already have done. You can rent media from Apple on iTunes.
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There is in general way too much control by the media companies.
Comcast owns NBC, Comcast owns the Cables that goes to your house that you use for TV and Internet. ATT, Dish TV...
The problem is we just want to pay 1 bill vs. Paying a bill for each channel we want to subscribe to, pay for the cable company which puts them into one feed, paying for the cable infrastructure.
Think of the old dial-up internet. You paid for your ISP, your phone line, and sometimes a separate long distance service, all on separat
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Instead of being separate businesses (which still allows for sweetheart deals), why not just have legally enforced content neutrality.
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Instead of being separate businesses (which still allows for sweetheart deals), why not just have legally enforced content neutrality.
Eh? What does that mean, does Netflix have to offer an OS/2 and BeOS version of their client? Does Apple have to make Apple Music work on Android? I really don't see how it would be functionally possible to require all content to be playable on every device/OS. And as far as I know Apple is charging Netflix the same they'd charge any Netflix-like competitor, neutrality just means it's the same terms for everyone.
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It would mean that Apple couldn't offer better terms to Apple Music, etc. than to Netflix. Fixed public pricing for all content providers.
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They already have: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.android.music&hl=en_US
Apple Music came to Android tablet just this month (Score:2)
That's new. Until this month (December 2018), Apple Music worked on Android phones but was deliberately incompatible with Android tablets. (Source: Engadget [engadget.com])
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Samsung tablets are made by the same manufacturer and run the same version of Android as Samsung phones. The only differences are screen size and inability to dial the PSTN or receive SMS. What "debugging" was needed just to turn off the flag that blocks Google Play Store from offering the application to users of devices with large screens?
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Re: Next Week's Story (Score:2)
Why?
I would find that to be a huge pain in the ass.
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I don't see Apple to be in a position to do something like this, yet.
Netflix brand is synonymous with streaming movies and TV. Dropping Netflix would cause iOS users to switch over to Android systems. Netflix is actually mobile systems killer app.
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"Apple pulls Netflix from App Store; shifts focus to Apple original paid programming"
Apple’s made plenty of stupid decisions lately... but I can’t see them doing something THAT boneheaded.
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I, for one, would love to see what cult-like Orwellian crap Apple would shit out and call original programming for their users to watch.
I'm betting it would give Scientology ads a run for their money.
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"Apple pulls Netflix from App Store; shifts focus to Apple original paid programming"
There are two possibilities: Netflix followed the App Store rules, or they didn't. If they didn't follow the App Store rules (which is unlikely), they will be pulled.
The App Store rules are quite simple: If you pay through the app, you have to pay through the App Store. You cannot have a link in your app that leads you to a different payment method. You can have a website with different payment methods, that's absolutely fine, but you cannot link to it from the app.
If users cannot figure out how to pa
wondering how long (Score:2)
seeing this happen more and more from different monthly subscription services. wondering how long it will be before apple pull the apps from their store.
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seeing this happen more and more from different monthly subscription services. wondering how long it will be before apple pull the apps from their store.
It will happen just as soon as Apples decides they don't want those customers anymore.
There are a lot of other, coincidentally cheaper, devices that will display these third-party services just as good an ones made by Apple. Until Apple starts making original content better than Netflix and HBO (guffaw), Apple will be needing them more than they need Apple.