Google announces One Pass to rival Apple's subscription service

Typical of the battle being waged between Google and Apple, if Apple has something, Google will (eventually) have its own take on it. Thus, with Tuesday's App Store changes, said to be for subscription services but apparently encompassing far more, we now see Google fire back.

Naturally, this has been in the planning stages for a while; Google didn't just come up with this after Apple's announcement. Google's new subscription service for digital content is called Google One Pass.

Here's how it's described:

Readers who purchase from a One Pass publisher can access their content on tablets, smartphones and websites using a single sign-on with an email and password. Importantly, the service helps publishers authenticate existing subscribers so that readers don’t have to re-subscribe in order to access their content on new devices.

With Google One Pass, publishers can customize how and when they charge for content while experimenting with different models to see what works best for them—offering subscriptions, metered access, "freemium" content or even single articles for sale from their websites or mobile apps. The service also lets publishers give existing print subscribers free (or discounted) access to digital content. We take care of the rest, including payments technology handled via Google Checkout.

"They take care of the rest," but how much of that "rest-taking" will it cost publishers. Reportedly, Google has outbid Apple. Google's cut will only be 10 percent; Apple's is 30 percent.

Doing it this way pretty much duplicates Amazon.com's model: buy once, read everywhere, which has been wildly successful for their Kindle. One Pass is already available for publishers in the U.S., U.K., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

German publishers Axel Springer AG, Focus Online and Stern.de are already participating. Other publishers that have already signed up for One Pass include Bonnier’s Popular Science, Media General, NouvelObs, Prisa and Rust Communications.

Watch a video below.