5 ms·

Apple takes 30% of the purchase price for app sales on the app store.

by komodo 9y ago

sly010 9y ago
Apple tax to me also means the average ~$1000/year I have to spend on replacing otherwise completely perfect Apple hardware that gets conveniently software upgraded to be too old for normal daily functions :)
- abritinthebay 9y ago
  What on earth are you buying regularly? Several 4 year old iPhones?
  - feelix 9y ago
    If a computer costs $3000 and you save up $1000 a year to buy it, in 3 years you can buy that computer.
    - eropple 9y ago
      I question your decision-making if you aren't doing bleeding-edge graphics programming and are replacing a $3,000 computer every three years. Three years ago was when I got my current retina MBP, I do stuff on it that's considerably more demanding than iOS app development, and I expect to replace this in 2020.
      - adrianm 9y ago
        Alternatively, they are sane enthusiasts who enjoy using and taxing state of the art hardware. Or they are gamers. Or both. I could say I question the decision making of someone (especially a hacker) who doesn't upgrade their laptop every six years. But that would be rude.
        eropple 9y ago
        > Alternatively, they are sane enthusiasts who enjoy using and taxing state of the art hardware If you're complaining about the "Apple tax" of hardware in a thread about Apple taking 30% off the top of an App Store sale, then it stands to reason that you're talking about using that hardware to build applications that would be hit by the first. But even if you overlook the "sail into a topic and go grind that axe" non sequitur of it, the complaint here was that software was being "upgraded" to the point where it no longer suffices for "normal daily functions"--which is kinda silly, Sierra is about as performant on my older MBP (a 2011 midrange one) as OS X ever was even if applications running on it have gotten more grabby, but that's not Apple's fault either. (But to be clear: gaming? Hey, that's totally fine. I keep a moderately recent gaming rig, myself. But I don't then turn around and complain about the "tax" of my own choices, because that would be transcendentally dumb.)
        adrianm 9y ago
        Well, I agree with everything you wrote here.
      - problems 9y ago
        Hah, I can barely get the hardware on a heavily used laptop to last 2 years, let alone over 3. Shit is just junk, Apple stuff included. HDMI port failed on my new Macbook.
      - danieldk 9y ago
        Above that, the resale value of Macs is great. I typically buy a new MacBook every 1.5 years. But I can sell the old one for 75% of the purchase price. 300 Euro per year for a cutting edge machine is not a lot, especially if your income depends on it.
    - abritinthebay 9y ago
      But a 3 years old $3000 computer won't have been obsoleted by software updates (the OP contention). So... that won't be an issue.
  - posguy 9y ago
    Probably a base model iPhone every 2.5 years @ ~$720 after tax/state fees, and $1645.90 for a base model MacBook Pro every 3 years. Figure OP might bump some specs up to hit the $1k spend a year mark, but minimum your spending $800 a year for a decent environment to target iOS. And this is why I haven't made any apps for iOS :P
    - dntrkv 9y ago
      OP said: "replacing otherwise completely perfect Apple hardware that gets conveniently software upgraded to be too old for normal daily functions" For iOS v10, the iPhone 5, which was released in 2012, is still supported. So no, Apple is not forcing you to purchase a new iPhone every 2.5 years.
      - posguy 9y ago
        No, I was pulling that 2.5 year figure from my prior life of selling cellphones to businesses and the occasional consumer. On average 40% of a wireless account will upgrade per year, so about every 2.5 years you'll see a line upgrade devices. Its great that Apple supports the iPhone 5 still, but the user experience on an iPhone 5 is different from an iPhone 7, and its hard to optimize for a device you don't have that is multiple generations newer.
        vizeroth 9y ago
        If you're developing on Apple hardware in Xcode, you have a number of simulators available in the development environment to test/optimize most of that. I'm sure someone will come up with plenty of reasons that this isn't good enough for some developers, but it's not something I ran into when I was developing for iOS.
        Tanegashima 9y ago
        What you have to optimize exactly? If it runs fine on a iPhone 5, it runs better on an iPhone 7. You are not writing drivers, you don't need to optimize anything.
    - 9y ago
s73ver 9y ago
Which, in the days before the Apple App Store, when one had to contact Verizon or AT&T to get your app available to cell phones, was the other way around. They would take 70%, and give you 30%.
- kalleboo 9y ago
  I never had any issues sideloading J2ME apps...
  - megablast 9y ago
    How did you go about selling them?
    - kalleboo 9y ago
      I used a J2ME Twitter client where you paid via Paypal and entered an activation code - the shareware model.
- megablast 9y ago
  You wouldn't go to Verizon, you would need to get a publisher, which was very hard to get.
- stevefeinstein 9y ago
  How quickly people forget this. It went quickly from Apple is changing the game, and giving developers an unprecedented cut of the sale of their apps. And for their 30% they host it, they process the credit cards, they provide the iCloud infrastructure and notifications for free, they make it searchable in their store. No one said it wasn't a good deal. But a few years pass, and now it's the Apple Tax? Some people could promote and sell it themselves for less. A lot less? Maybe, maybe not. But most of us could never ever do it for the 30%. Why does everyone think they're the smartest one in the room these days? Odds are, you're really not. Sorry. You're just not.
  - nojvek 9y ago

Apple takes 30% of the purchase price for app sales on the app store.

by komodo 9y ago

Apple takes 30% of the purchase price for app sales on the app store.

Apple tax to me also means the average ~$1000/year I have to spend on replacing otherwise completely perfect Apple hardware that gets conveniently software upgraded to be too old for normal daily functions :)

abritinthebay 9y ago
What on earth are you buying regularly? Several 4 year old iPhones?
- feelix 9y ago
  If a computer costs $3000 and you save up $1000 a year to buy it, in 3 years you can buy that computer.
  - eropple 9y ago
    I question your decision-making if you aren't doing bleeding-edge graphics programming and are replacing a $3,000 computer every three years. Three years ago was when I got my current retina MBP, I do stuff on it that's considerably more demanding than iOS app development, and I expect to replace this in 2020.
    - adrianm 9y ago
      Alternatively, they are sane enthusiasts who enjoy using and taxing state of the art hardware. Or they are gamers. Or both. I could say I question the decision making of someone (especially a hacker) who doesn't upgrade their laptop every six years. But that would be rude.
      - eropple 9y ago
        > Alternatively, they are sane enthusiasts who enjoy using and taxing state of the art hardware If you're complaining about the "Apple tax" of hardware in a thread about Apple taking 30% off the top of an App Store sale, then it stands to reason that you're talking about using that hardware to build applications that would be hit by the first. But even if you overlook the "sail into a topic and go grind that axe" non sequitur of it, the complaint here was that software was being "upgraded" to the point where it no longer suffices for "normal daily functions"--which is kinda silly, Sierra is about as performant on my older MBP (a 2011 midrange one) as OS X ever was even if applications running on it have gotten more grabby, but that's not Apple's fault either. (But to be clear: gaming? Hey, that's totally fine. I keep a moderately recent gaming rig, myself. But I don't then turn around and complain about the "tax" of my own choices, because that would be transcendentally dumb.)
        adrianm 9y ago
        Well, I agree with everything you wrote here.
    - problems 9y ago
      Hah, I can barely get the hardware on a heavily used laptop to last 2 years, let alone over 3. Shit is just junk, Apple stuff included. HDMI port failed on my new Macbook.
    - danieldk 9y ago
      Above that, the resale value of Macs is great. I typically buy a new MacBook every 1.5 years. But I can sell the old one for 75% of the purchase price. 300 Euro per year for a cutting edge machine is not a lot, especially if your income depends on it.
  - abritinthebay 9y ago
    But a 3 years old $3000 computer won't have been obsoleted by software updates (the OP contention). So... that won't be an issue.
- posguy 9y ago
  Probably a base model iPhone every 2.5 years @ ~$720 after tax/state fees, and $1645.90 for a base model MacBook Pro every 3 years. Figure OP might bump some specs up to hit the $1k spend a year mark, but minimum your spending $800 a year for a decent environment to target iOS. And this is why I haven't made any apps for iOS :P
  - dntrkv 9y ago
    OP said: "replacing otherwise completely perfect Apple hardware that gets conveniently software upgraded to be too old for normal daily functions" For iOS v10, the iPhone 5, which was released in 2012, is still supported. So no, Apple is not forcing you to purchase a new iPhone every 2.5 years.
    - posguy 9y ago
      No, I was pulling that 2.5 year figure from my prior life of selling cellphones to businesses and the occasional consumer. On average 40% of a wireless account will upgrade per year, so about every 2.5 years you'll see a line upgrade devices. Its great that Apple supports the iPhone 5 still, but the user experience on an iPhone 5 is different from an iPhone 7, and its hard to optimize for a device you don't have that is multiple generations newer.
      - vizeroth 9y ago
        If you're developing on Apple hardware in Xcode, you have a number of simulators available in the development environment to test/optimize most of that. I'm sure someone will come up with plenty of reasons that this isn't good enough for some developers, but it's not something I ran into when I was developing for iOS.
      - Tanegashima 9y ago
        What you have to optimize exactly? If it runs fine on a iPhone 5, it runs better on an iPhone 7. You are not writing drivers, you don't need to optimize anything.
  - 9y ago

s73ver 9y ago

Which, in the days before the Apple App Store, when one had to contact Verizon or AT&T to get your app available to cell phones, was the other way around. They would take 70%, and give you 30%.

kalleboo 9y ago
I never had any issues sideloading J2ME apps...
- megablast 9y ago
  How did you go about selling them?
  - kalleboo 9y ago
    I used a J2ME Twitter client where you paid via Paypal and entered an activation code - the shareware model.
megablast 9y ago
You wouldn't go to Verizon, you would need to get a publisher, which was very hard to get.
stevefeinstein 9y ago
How quickly people forget this. It went quickly from Apple is changing the game, and giving developers an unprecedented cut of the sale of their apps. And for their 30% they host it, they process the credit cards, they provide the iCloud infrastructure and notifications for free, they make it searchable in their store. No one said it wasn't a good deal. But a few years pass, and now it's the Apple Tax? Some people could promote and sell it themselves for less. A lot less? Maybe, maybe not. But most of us could never ever do it for the 30%. Why does everyone think they're the smartest one in the room these days? Odds are, you're really not. Sorry. You're just not.
- nojvek 9y ago