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>> The $99/year/active developer is a nominal amount Is it really? There are 2 million apps in the iOS App Store[0]. At $99/year to be listed in the store, th

by judah 8y ago

>> The $99/year/active developer is a nominal amount Is it really? There are 2 million apps in the iOS App Store[0]. At $99/year to be listed in the store, that's $198,000,000/year for Apple. On top of that, you have 30% price of an app. 12% of those apps are paid[1], that's 240,000 paid apps. Suppose the average price of a paid app is $5, and suppose each app is purchased 2000 times. (I have no idea what the average is, but this sounds reasonable.) 240,000 apps * $5 * 2000 purchases * Apple's 30% cut = $720,000,000 revenue for Apple. Then we have to add 30% in-app purchases. This is a bigger number than app purchases, both free and paid apps have in-app purchases. This article[2] says in-app purchases make up half of all mobile revenue - that would put in-app purchases reaping Apple $918,000,000/year for their 30% cut. These are educated guesses based on some napkin math, but I'm betting Apple's iOS App Store business is bringing in figures in the hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars every year. Either way, it's not nominal. [0]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/276623/number-of-apps-available-in-leading-app-stores/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/276623/number-of-apps-av... [1]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/263797/number-of-applications-for-mobile-phones/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/263797/number-of-applica... [2]: http://www.businessofapps.com/data/app-revenues/ http://www.businessofapps.com/data/app-revenues/

millstone 8y ago
It's not $99 a year to list an app in the store. We don't have to guess: Apple reports these numbers. They earned $11.5 billion in revenue from the app store in 2017. I'm not sure what you're expecting here. Apple clearly views their role as protecting users from the hostile aspects of the web: see content blockers, reader mode, anti-tracking features in iOS 12. Of course Apple is not going to jump on unrestricted JS background execution, unreviewable OTA-updatable tracking, etc. And of course Apple is going to focus their efforts on their native APIs.
- judah 8y ago
  Wow, even larger than my napkin calculations. So my assertion that the app store business is significant is correct. The problem with Apple, or any other big corporation, "protecting" users is that censorship is a two-edged sword. It's great that the iOS App Store doesn't suffer from, say, malware. It's not great that Apple has the final say over published content; Apple (or hostile governments forcing Apple) can block content for any reason; political, religious, or even vindictive. This is not merely theoretical[0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Apple https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Apple
  - millstone 8y ago
    The App Store is a big business for sure. The "censorship" angle doesn't really fly. Apple doesn't censor any web content: all websites are accessible via iOS. The App Store is a different matter. Yes, Apple blocks the boobs and the baby-shaking games, like Amazon blocked the "Keep Calm and Rape" t-shirts. That's not censorship, that's a storefront owner exercising common sense in the products they choose to stock. Apple is in good company in limiting what can be installed. Chrome on iOS is hobbled, but Firefox on ChromeOS isn't even a thing, and Google Chromecast is even more locked down. Ultimately it comes down to this: Apple is not a monopoly but a minority player, and iOS users have made a conscious decision because of the value they've found in Apple's ecosystem. If you want access to that market, you have to make your products appeal to that userbase.

by judah 8y ago

millstone 8y ago

It's not $99 a year to list an app in the store. We don't have to guess: Apple reports these numbers. They earned $11.5 billion in revenue from the app store in 2017. I'm not sure what you're expecting here. Apple clearly views their role as protecting users from the hostile aspects of the web: see content blockers, reader mode, anti-tracking features in iOS 12. Of course Apple is not going to jump on unrestricted JS background execution, unreviewable OTA-updatable tracking, etc. And of course Apple is going to focus their efforts on their native APIs.

judah 8y ago
Wow, even larger than my napkin calculations. So my assertion that the app store business is significant is correct. The problem with Apple, or any other big corporation, "protecting" users is that censorship is a two-edged sword. It's great that the iOS App Store doesn't suffer from, say, malware. It's not great that Apple has the final say over published content; Apple (or hostile governments forcing Apple) can block content for any reason; political, religious, or even vindictive. This is not merely theoretical[0]. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Apple https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Apple
- millstone 8y ago
  The App Store is a big business for sure. The "censorship" angle doesn't really fly. Apple doesn't censor any web content: all websites are accessible via iOS. The App Store is a different matter. Yes, Apple blocks the boobs and the baby-shaking games, like Amazon blocked the "Keep Calm and Rape" t-shirts. That's not censorship, that's a storefront owner exercising common sense in the products they choose to stock. Apple is in good company in limiting what can be installed. Chrome on iOS is hobbled, but Firefox on ChromeOS isn't even a thing, and Google Chromecast is even more locked down. Ultimately it comes down to this: Apple is not a monopoly but a minority player, and iOS users have made a conscious decision because of the value they've found in Apple's ecosystem. If you want access to that market, you have to make your products appeal to that userbase.