By:
May 25, 2010

TechCrunch
Speaking at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York on Monday, a panel moderated by David Carr of The New York Times agreed that Apple’s restrictive policies on app approvals and information sharing provide an opening in the market for competitors.

The panel discussion “Does The iPad Change Everything For News, Or Is It Still All About The Web?” featured Carr, Huffington Post CEO Eric Hippeau, Bloomberg chief content officer Norm Pearlstine and investor Ron Conway. TechCrunch reports:

“Apple’s restrictions could end up hurting the device in the long run. Apple is in control right now because they’re the first to market with a killer product, but others will emulate them, reasons Pearlstine. He believes a lot of the content on these type of tablets will eventually be web-based rather than app-based (similar to an argument Google co-founder Sergey Brin made last week).”

Panelists pointed out that the other concern with apps for media companies is that Apple does not share customer information with partners. So the subscriber relationship is lost by the publisher and won by Apple, an untenable arrangement for most media companies:

“The problem with this is that Apple doesn’t give back nearly as much data as having your own website would, Hippeau says. He thinks Apple will have to learn that media organizations live off of this data. ‘They’ll have to open it up more.’ he says.”
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