What Is Apple Newsstand?

Apple Newsstand in iOS 5 for Developers

Apple Newsstand

What is Apple Newsstand and what has it to do with iPhone development?

Apple Newsstand is is Apple’s new publishing platform. It is available with the iOS 5 SDK. Digital Publishers can now publish newspapers and magazines to the Apple Store. The In-App Purchase feature makes it possible to accept subscriptions.  This is different from ebooks.  Newsstand apps are for subscription content.

What will this mean for Digital Publishers

It’s been reported that magazine publishers had a “surge in sales” attributed to publishing in Apple Newsstand as it gives access to its current app and iTunes customers looking to consume books and magazines the same way.

What will this mean for iPhone Developers?

It means the market is still good. It’s fresh. This is one band wagon many publishers will want to jump on simply because it is the inevitable way we are going. Developers will find themselves presented with lots of opportunity to help digitize the world’s content. That is where we are today and being a developer is a great thing to be today.

Newsstand for Developers

The first thing you need in order to create a Newsstand App is to download the iOS 5 SDK which allows you to create apps for Apple Newsstand.  You can access it by logging into your apple developer account.  The Newsstand publisher is just that.  The Newsstand kit assists developers in creating magazine and newspaper publications . . . content that will be subscribed to and updated on a regular basis such as the Wall Street Journal or other magazines that are released on a schedule.  Push notifications alert users when new updates are made to your publication.

How Apple Newsstand Kit Works

Content is organized by Publication name and Publication Date making it easy for users to locate back issues of any publication.  Stored content on your web server is requested by your newsstand app.  Downloads occur in the background allowing users to continue whatever they were doing while the content is loaded.

This is an exciting time to be a developer with all the new technology coming out.  Increased mobile usage and access to internet creates a greater demand for keeping up both for consumers in purchasing new technology so they can be updated and for developers to help facilitate the creation of this new content to accommodate users.

Unlike in Y2K when developers were being recruited because companies feared what might happen to their computers, Mobile Developers are being recruited today for the sheer excitement of the technology boom we’re in right now.