Subscription business model

Adobe stock climbed 10 percent to just under $60 in opening trading after announcing Q4 earnings in line with expectations, and strong growth in subscriptions as the company transitions away from one-time purchase licences.

While year-on-year numbers were poor, revenue down almost 10 percent and earnings almost halved, Adobe has been at pains to point out this was expected as it shifted to subscription-based sales.

As Adobe customers migrate from a legacy Creative Suite perpetual licensing model to new Creative Cloud subscriptions, revenue is recognized over time as opposed to at the time of purchase.

See below for a cool infographic of Adobe by the numbers … 
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Pitchers and Catchers are set to report over the next few days and MLB is getting its 2012 App ready

Baseball fans will be happy to hear that Major League Baseball is again bringing the MLB at Bat app back to the App Store so they can enjoy every game throughout the season on their iOS device. In previous years, the MLB at Bat app on the App Store made available audio of the games and in-game statistics. A premium package could open video for all games. This year, MLB is changing the way they bring you games.

Luckily for this season, MLB confirmed with EverythingiCafe that MLB at Bat ’12 would be available for free on the App Store for both the iPhone and iPad— as long as you pay for the one time subscription. The app will stream both audio and video and bring in-game stats.

MLB at Bat ’12 will be available Feb. 29 for free. However, if you want to use the app, you will have to pay a once-a-year $119 subscription as a returning customer or $125 as a new customer. Those who subscribe can view 150 Spring Training games and all 2,430 regular season games, though some are subject black outs. You can now sign up for the MLB.TV season on the MLB website. The first game will stream March 3.

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Update: There has been some doubt regarding Bloomberg’s initial report and whether or not this is a new App Store policy introduced by Apple. One 9to5Mac reader writes:

This App is not doing any thing special that other subscription services don’t already do on iOS. This is nothing more than a remote desktop app (like iswiffer or many others) that let you play flash games. This is just locked down to their own server and their own flash games optimized for touch. You must have internet access for this to work (like all other remote desktop apps). This is not some new business model for the app store.

Apple will now begin letting video game publishers offer their titles to iPad users via a subscription model, a revenue stream for publishers and purchasing option for users that was previously only available for digital publications. Bloomberg reports:

Big Fish Games, a Seattle-based game publisher, won approval from Apple to become the first to offer users access to dozens of titles for $6.99 a month. Until now, games have only been available one at a time, requiring users to download individual applications.

So essentially, a user who buys into a Big Fish Games subscription will be able to play unlimited games that the publisher makes available through a dedicated app. Games will be streamed to a users iPad from Big Fish’s data centers, and will initially require the user have Wi-Fi access to play. As always, Apple will still collect a 30% cut of revenues.

When it comes to the process of Big Fish convincing Apple of the model, the company’s founder Paul Thelen had this to say:
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Using Apple’s set of APIs, the New York Times has opened up in-app subscriptions in their iPhone and iPad app reports Macstories. After setting a paywall not too long ago the New York Times has been looking for ways to get their users to sign up for the subscription. It appears the Times has found their way, through the app store, offering subscriptions for website, iPhone, and iPad access. The Times is charging users $15 for access to the website plus iPhone, $20 for website plus iPad, and a combo of all three for $35. If you’re interested download the apps here and here.

In this digital age, do you agree with the New York Time’s subscription model?

As if today’s pay wall announcement from the New York Times Company wasn’t enough, the news broke that an iPad-exclusive newspaper, The Daily, will begin charging for access next week. Unlike the Times’ entry-level $15 a month subscription for reading online articles on smartphones, the privilege of enjoying The Daily on your iPad costs just 99 cents per week, or forty bucks per year. Rupert Murdoch’s digital-only newspaper is slated to launch in Western Europe by summer, The Guardian reports. The exact release depends on when Apple’s new iOS subscription service becomes available in the country.

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The New York Times made the announcement today that marks the end of free news on their website. From now on, you will be able to access up to twenty online articles per month free of charge. Reading the news on your smartphone will set you back fifteen bucks a month and five more bucks if you’re accessing their content from a tablet. They also offer a combined $35 per month plan that buys you full access to the New York Times website via the web, as well as smartphone and tablet apps.

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