Popular Science reveals low iPad subscription numbers
updated 01:25 pm EDT, Wed March 30, 2011
Publisher still 'excited' with early figures
The iPad version of Popular Science has accumulated over 10,000 subscriptions as of Sunday, according to publisher Bonnier Technology Group. The company claims to be "very excited" about the milestone, which was reached only six weeks after Apple switched to a new in-app subscription model. Very few publishers have released details on their iPad performance.
The number of iPad subscriptions for Popular Science is still well below print numbers, which sit at 1.2 million. Bonnier has also sold approximately 2,500 individual copies of the March iPad issue. VP-group publisher Gregg Hano comments that the magazine has been averaging between 10,000 and 12,000 total iPad sales per month, a barrier it's finally "inching up over" as of March. In the second half of 2010 Popular Science managed 1.3 million subscriptions overall.
Hano admits that because of Apple policies, Bonnier is mostly in the dark about iPad subscriber details. "We don't have any information on where the subscribers are coming from or whether or not they are or are not print subscribers," he says. "Nor do we at this time know the number of people who have opted in to share their data with us."
Publishers have proven reluctant to adopt in-app subscriptions. Although Apple allows firms to claim all of the revenue from app subscriptions processed outside of a title, it also requires equivalent in-app options, from which Apple takes a 30 percent revenue cut. In-app prices must also be equal to or smaller than those offered through web portals.
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Joined: Dec 1999
No surprise
That's not THAT big of a surprise. What percent of iPad users read a specific magazine? Can't be that high.
Now if Apple had promoted some magazine reading app and had it pre-installed like iBooks or the App Store or iTunes store, you'd see a much higher percentage of users reading subscriptions on the iPad.