FT’s new web app bypasses need for iTunes

The Financial Times on Tuesday launches a web-based application for smartphones and tablet computers, allowing it to bypass Apple’s iTunes Store, Google’s Android Market and other distributors to secure a direct relationship with readers.The launch, the first of its kind by a large international newspaper publisher, comes after several publishers have expressed unhappiness at Apple’s reluctance to share detailed data on the identities and behaviour of users of apps distributed through its store.INMA, an international news industry association, voiced concern in February about new rules from Apple relating to content subscriptions on its iPhone and iPad devices.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/8b458e4a-9084-11e0-9531-00144feab49a.html
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8b458e4a-9084-11e0-9531-00144feab49a.htmlAlso see:Financial Times Introduces Web App in Effort to Bypass Apple
The Financial Times on Tuesday introduced a mobile Web application aimed at luring readers away from Apple’s iTunes App Store, throwing down the gauntlet over new business conditions that Apple is set to impose on publishers who sell digital subscriptions via iTunes.A number of publishers have expressed their displeasure with Apple’s plan to retain 30 percent of the revenue from subscriptions sold on iTunes, and to keep customer data from such sales, beginning at the end of June. At the same time, mobile applications are a fast-growing source of new readers and revenue, so publishers have been reluctant to pull their applications from the iTunes store.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/08/technology/08ftapp.html