Apple rolled out some new features for the App Store at a special event being held at the company’s Cupertino, Calif., campus on Tuesday.
Scott Forstall, Apple's senior vice president of iPhone Software, said many developers would like to see a subscription model in the App Store. This would give magazine companies a way to increase sales, while filling a demand from customers.
[ Keep up with the news from Apple's Town Hall at Tom Yager's Enterprise Mac blog. | For more on Apple's new iPhone 3.0 OS, see InfoWorld's special report. ]
Subscriptions isn’t the only new model coming to the App Store. With the release of the new App Store, developers will be able to sell products from within the app itself. That means that game developers can sell additional levels for their games and eBook developers can have a virtual bookstore inside their app for consumers to purchase books.
Apple said the business model for in-app purchases will be the same for developers as the current model: Apple gets 30 percent of the revenue, while developers take home 70 percent.
Gamers will be very happy about another API included in the new version of iPhone software: peer-to-peer connectivity. Using this features, people can play games with friends over a local network. The technology uses Bonjour over Bluetooth, not Wi-Fi. While gaming is the obvious example to use for this type of technology, Apple said it would work for any Peer-to-Peer application.
The new features will be available when Apple releases iPhone Software 3.0.
Macworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.
