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The apps you built will never expire. (I know that from personal experience; we let our iPhone dev certificate expire for a while due to lack of attention, but

by cpr 17y ago

The apps you built will never expire. (I know that from personal experience; we let our iPhone dev certificate expire for a while due to lack of attention, but our apps never failed to work.) The SDK you've downloaded will never expire. Yes, the ability to sign apps will disappear, but you could run them in unsigned debug mode forever.

jacquesm 17y ago
So, effectively you're on the hook for as long as you decide to support your product.
- cpr 17y ago
  Sure thing! I don't find it offensive to pay $99/year to Apple in exchange for them maintaining their developer portal and tools. They invest tens of millions in the toolchain alone every year, and, I'm even underwriting a lot of great LLVM/clang open source development with my fee...
  - wizard_2 17y ago
    They also take 30% of every app you sell. The fact I bought doodle jump underwrote the developer tools. As of this year they are the single biggest mobile company due to their app and phone sales. The $100 a developer isn't much of a profit for them as it is a means to control access.
    - cpr 17y ago
      I'm sorry, but I don't think 30% is an unreasonable cut. When I sell my current indie Mac/Win software through resellers, I have to give them at least 25% to make it worth their while.
      - jacquesm 17y ago
        > I'm sorry, but I don't think 30% is an unreasonable cut. That's good for you. Did you negotiate with Apple? Or did you find that since there can not be any competition that it was 30% or forget it? > When I sell my current indie Mac/Win software through resellers, I have to give them at least 25% to make it worth their while. Ah, but the interesting bit here is that apparently there you can negotiate.
        cpr 17y ago
        Well, not really--if you don't give a reseller at least 20-25%, they're not going to be motivated to sell.
      - wizard_2 17y ago
        Neither do I, I'm just saying it's making them very profitable, much more so then the developer fee. So much more that I don't see the developer fee as a source of income.

by cpr 17y ago

jacquesm 17y ago

So, effectively you're on the hook for as long as you decide to support your product.

cpr 17y ago
Sure thing! I don't find it offensive to pay $99/year to Apple in exchange for them maintaining their developer portal and tools. They invest tens of millions in the toolchain alone every year, and, I'm even underwriting a lot of great LLVM/clang open source development with my fee...
- wizard_2 17y ago
  They also take 30% of every app you sell. The fact I bought doodle jump underwrote the developer tools. As of this year they are the single biggest mobile company due to their app and phone sales. The $100 a developer isn't much of a profit for them as it is a means to control access.
  - cpr 17y ago
    I'm sorry, but I don't think 30% is an unreasonable cut. When I sell my current indie Mac/Win software through resellers, I have to give them at least 25% to make it worth their while.
    - jacquesm 17y ago
      > I'm sorry, but I don't think 30% is an unreasonable cut. That's good for you. Did you negotiate with Apple? Or did you find that since there can not be any competition that it was 30% or forget it? > When I sell my current indie Mac/Win software through resellers, I have to give them at least 25% to make it worth their while. Ah, but the interesting bit here is that apparently there you can negotiate.
      - cpr 17y ago
        Well, not really--if you don't give a reseller at least 20-25%, they're not going to be motivated to sell.
    - wizard_2 17y ago
      Neither do I, I'm just saying it's making them very profitable, much more so then the developer fee. So much more that I don't see the developer fee as a source of income.