Apple reportedly planning iOS 4.3 in Dec with app subscription
Damian Koh | Nov 24, 2010
Apple is said to be targeting a iOS 4.3 release, which will enable subscription billing for applications as early as December 13, according to blog site MacStories. It is also believed that The Daily, a joint effort between Apple and News Corp, will be the first app to support a recurring payment mode.
Earlier reports had confirmed that News Corp was working on a daily tablet-only digital newspaper, which will cost US$0.99 per week. The Daily is expected to be unveiled in December with a launch slated for early 2011. Daring Fireball's John Gruber speculated that an update to the iOS may be required to support the subscription billing APIs. This would give developers and publishers the avenue to charge users for daily, weekly or monthly content updates.
In June this year, Apple announced it was building a server farm facility in North Carolina. Many in the media surmised that the data center, which is on schedule for completion year-end, will form the backbone for Apple's cloud services. This seems to corroborate with the release of the rumored iOS 4.3.
An anonymous source also told MacStories that Apple was already planning to release a new build of iOS 4.x in mid-December. This was even before the Wi-Fi issues on iOS 4.2 were discovered, which subsequently delayed the launch of the update. The source added that iOS 4.3 should include "bug fixes and maintenance of the code" and will likely address initial issues with the wireless streaming feature AirPlay.
The source also suggested that the new data center will lead to a "mass expansion of all services, iTunes, MobileMe, activations, retail services and any cloud services they [Apple] might go with in the future".
This could possibly allay future download hiccups, which some users experienced when iOS 4 was first released in June.
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