Wal-Mart builds, destroys. Giveth, taketh away. For everything, turn turn turn, there is a Wal-Mart, turn turn turn.
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Wal-Mart builds, destroys. Giveth, taketh away. For everything, turn turn turn, there is a Wal-Mart, turn turn turn.
The enormous discount retailer and blue vest promotional organization is trying to get around Apple’s strict rules. Wal-Mart is bringing its Vudu video service to the iPad but not through an app, instead using the built in Safari browser.
Wal-Mart said a Vudu icon can be put on the iPad home screen, but when users touch it, they will be taken to Vudu’s website to buy content.
“It’s not an app,” said Edward Lichty, general manager of Vudu. “It’s an all-browser experience. But you access it in a similar way.”
Apple introduced new terms and conditions recently that required publishers to give the company 30 percent of the price of any content they sell through apps. Since then, some providers, including Amazon.com Inc, have changed the way their apps work to avoid sharing revenue.
Vudu’s Lichty said Apple’s new terms and conditions were partly behind the way Vudu was launched on the iPad.
“The economic advantage of not having to pay Apple 30 percent was a factor,” Lichty told Reuters.
In other Wal-Mart news, there’s no more digital music store. In still other news, there apparently WAS a Wal-Mart digital music store.
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