Apple's revenue shares with ops could impact us, say CPs.
Apple’s much trumpeted business model for iPhone – getting between 10 per cent and 40 per cent of subscriber revenues from operators rather than a handset subsidy – is not going down well with some content providers. They fear that they’ll have to pay an ‘Apple tax’.Mark Curtis, of mobile dating and flirting service Flirtomatic, said: “I’m sure a lot of people will be surprised that operators have allowed Steve Jobs to tickle their tummies so cravenly. But what strikes me is the impact this could have on the content market. Make no mistake; the operators will be seeking to get the data element of the Apple tax back. And guess who from? Yes, the small army of content and service providers trying extremely hard to create a mobile data industry.”
Apple this week confirmed it is opening up its platform to allow third party content to be sold from the iPhone. But Curtis’s fear is as much for the knock-on effect across the entire industry as for what will happen on one Apple device.
He added: “I’d hazard a guess that it won’t be long before Nokia wants a piece of the [revenue share] action too. If this is true, the cake has just had a big slice taken out.”
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