Apple turns the screw a tad too far

I'm about to enrol in a 12-step program. I've yet to find an Apple Anonymous club anywhere in my city, so I'm going to have to do it on my own. As a self-declared lover of Apple products, it's going to be a tough habit to break. My first step was to buy a Samsung Galaxy Tab instead of waiting for an iPad 2. My second step will be to buy a Motorola Droid x2 for my next phone, instead of an iPhone 5, when they ship.

Why am I turning my back on Apple? Because Apple effectively just turned its back on me as a reader, and on publishers, as content partners. It just announced its long-awaited publishing content policy, and essentially confirmed what the world already knew.

Apple is telling publishers that they must provide an option for customers to buy their content directly via iTunes, using a single-click in-app link. Moreover, they must offer that content at the same price or cheaper than via their own stores, and they are not allowed to provide links within Apple's applications to their own purchase mechanisms. The kicker: Apple takes a 30% cut on all content sold through its stores.

This is not good for publishers of music and books, who must pay part of their fees to the authors of the content they sell. Many will find it unfeasible to sell their content via apps provided via Apple's iOS operating system. Many music publishers will be forced out, and Rhapsody has already said that it will not co-operate with the policy.

It is difficult to see how many publishers will be happy with this situation, and suggests that firms like Amazon may follow Sony in reaching an impasse with Apple when it comes to making new versions of their applications available for the iPad and iPhone platforms.

Many customers won't see the significance of this. It is amazing just how much a shiny, well designed device can blind users to political and economic machinations. But the iPad, in particular, was designed as a device to consume content. Will these draconian terms end up impeding the platform's popularity?

As the publishing sector fumes at Apple, Google beckons. It just launched One Pass, its own subscription system for content distributors, which takes 10% cut for content distribution instead of Apple's 30%.

This is unlikely to be the beginning of the end for Apple. Its marketing powerhouse is too strong, and the ramifications of this move too opaque to consumers, for it to do significant immediate damage. Nevertheless, it may be a miscalculation, especially as Android gains market share and offers an increasingly viable alternative platform for content distributors.