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There were several free apps in the top-grossing list last time I checked. And I think ad profits are worth mentioning. iAd is a pretty significant investment
by neonfunk 16y ago
There were several free apps in the top-grossing list last time I checked. And I think ad profits are worth mentioning. iAd is a pretty significant investment on Apple's part... not that they aren't hoping to profit from it -- but the more devs profit, the more they profit -- I think that's the real point. To say they "don't want" devs to profit confuses me.
- DrSprout 16y ago>There were several free apps in the top-grossing list last time I checked. Okay, how many of them are making a serious profit? How many are breaking even? How many are profiting primarily due to an existing customer base? (I'm thinking of Pandora as an obvious example; they're making money off of Apple's platform, but they were making money before they wrote an iPhone app.)
- patio11 16y agobut the more devs profit, the more they profit The average App Store customer buys less than $20 worth of apps last time I saw numbers quoted. 30% of $20 is $6. Apple is a hardware manufacturer that sells $X00 phones at one of the highest markups in the industry and also gets a kickback from AT&T for every customer they bring to monthly billing. Apples' incentives are almost totally non-related to developers' incentives: their primary interest in apps is to move more hardware and contracts.
- neonfunk 16y agoYou're right, I don't think apple is that interested in devs' profitability, or for that matter, app store profits. But I also don't think they have any incentive to actively harm devs' chances of being successful... It's the "don't want them to profit" part that I can't understand. Maybe "don't care"... But "don't want"?