Apple's tablet: A 70-30 split?

Reports of Apple's pitch to print media companies hint at a business model

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

The tablet computer Apple (AAPL) is rumored to be readying for launch next year is much in the news this week. On Monday, the blogs were aflutter over a three-word phrase ("impending Apple slate") in a two-week old address to the New York Times' staff by executive editor Bill Keller.

On Tuesday comes a report out of the Sydney Morning Herald that actually contains a couple pieces of news -- albeit thinly sourced.

1. That Apple has sent specifications of a device "small enough to carry in a handbag but too big to fit in a pocket" to Australian media companies to see whether they would be interested in publishing on it.
2. That similar talks with Amazon (AMZN) over the Kindle e-book reader  broke down after the media executives balked at giving Amazon 70% of the revenue. "By contrast," writes the Herald, "Apple's model has been to give developers 70% of the revenue and to keep a 30% cut."

It's unclear from this report whether the Herald's sources know something about Apple's business model, or whether the paper is just looking at the cut Apple offers developers on the App Store and assuming that the same would apply to book, newspaper and magazine publishers putting content on the tablet.

This assume, of course, that there is a tablet and that it will ever see the light of day. As always with rumors about a new Apple device, we'll believe it when we see it.

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]