• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, June 9, 2011

It's publishers' lucky day! Apple has reportedly backed down on a major component of its new in-app subscription rules, which Web watchers say should provide a big boost to content companies.

Under Apple's just-revised guidelines, "Content providers may offer In-App subscriptions at whatever price they wish and they are not required to offer an in-app subscription simply because they sell a subscription outside the App Store as well," MacRumors reports.

As such, there are no longer any requirements that a subscription be the "same price or less than it is offered outside the app" -- nor are there any guidelines about price at all, according to MacRumors.

Under the old guidelines, "The rules would have made [publishers and other app developers] take a greater loss on in-app subscriptions after factoring in Apple's 30 percent cut," writes MobileBeat. "In particular, it could have had a significant effect on the likes of Amazon's Kindle app, Netflix's app, and other services centered on outside purchases and subscriptions."

Likely in response to Apple's old rules, "The Financial Times dropped its iOS application this week in favor of a Web application, in order to manage its own subscription price plans as it saw fit," ReadWriteWeb notes.

What's more "The Financial Times wasn't alone in balking at Apple's policy," CNet points out. "Just a couple days after Apple announced in-app subscriptions, the U.S. Justice Department said it would examine Apple's move to determine if it was violating antitrust laws."

Now, "Thanks to these revised guidelines, it looks like [more] apps will remain available to iOS users relatively unchanged," writes GigOm.

As All Things D notes, however, the changes do not address Apple's control of credit card information. "Which means that some print publishers, including the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, may still not be willing to adopt Apple's subscription rules, which kick in at the end of the month," it writes.