Financial Times pulls out of App Store after losing customer data battle
The Financial Times has pulled its iPad and iPhone apps out of the Apple App Store, following losing a battle to keep control of customer data.
Apple has recently begun to insist that subscriptions for apps it hosts goes through its own store, giving Apple ownership of customer data and a 30% cut of revenues; something which Pearson-owned FT and Apple have been negotiating about for months.
An FT spokesman told Reuters that the company was encouraging subscribers to migrate to the web-based app which was launched in June, which uses the open HTML5 standard that can be read by any browser, and is already being used by most mobile subscribers.
The spokesman described the disagreement with Apple as ‘amicable’ and said future apps for the App Store were still being planned including one for the FT's luxury weekend magazine 'How To Spend It' as early as September. This would be funded by advertising, not subscriptions, so there would be no conflict with Apple over subscription data ownership.