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> 84% of apps are free, and developers pay nothing to Apple. That's just false, every developer has to pay 99 USD per year to be able to publish apps. Even if
by ly 7y ago
> 84% of apps are free, and developers pay nothing to Apple.
That's just false, every developer has to pay 99 USD per year to be able to publish apps. Even if you only publish free apps.
- atonse 7y agoThis also plays to the traditional way of looking at monopolies, that they raise prices. But Amazon (and looks like, now Apple) are using this "but customers pay nothing" excuse to say that their monopolies benefit consumers. But because of the intangible nature of data, the "data prices" and "privacy prices" we all pay, have gone way up. It's just that we don't have good ways of measuring that.
- SpicyLemonZest 7y agoSure, but it’s unclear whether that’s a problem that traditional antitrust regulations can effectively solve. If Apple’s forced to open up iOS, would your privacy focused App Store really be able to win on the open market? Remember that you can only protect privacy in that context by rejecting apps consumers would otherwise want to install.
- anoncake 7y agoI much prefer the EU stance on that. It assumes that monopolies harm the customers, no excuses.
- hokumguru 7y agoNearly every municipality in the USA has local monopolies on utilities and it hardly causes an issue. Monopolies can't always assumed to be bad for the consumer.
- anoncake 7y agoAren't these monopolies either owned by the municipality or strictly regulated so they can't abuse their monopoly? Monopolies are problematic because it means the usual market mechanisms don't work. If you use regulation to keep prices in check and to ensure quality, monopolies do work for the customer of course. The EU generally prefers to use regulation to artificially create markets though.
- yeldarb 7y agoCame here to ask if they're announcing that they're waiving the $99 fee. This makes it sound like they must be... but I haven't seen any other mention of it. Maybe they jumped the gun a little bit and will announce it on Monday at WWDC?
- 52-6F-62 7y agoThat would be really big! One can hope...
- Aaargh20318 7y agoHaving software developed is expensive, very expensive. Complaining about the $99 developer program fee is like complaining about the price of gas when buying a new Bugatti Veyron. If you can't afford the $99 you certainly can't afford to develop an app. At least the $99 fee keeps hordes of amateurs from uploading their 'hello world' app and clogging up the review process even more.
- 52-6F-62 7y agoHeh, I saw it differently. Waiving the $99 lowers the entry barrier for someone working on a side project they want to sell or offer gratis. But yes I see your point about overloading the review process.
- bearjaws 7y agoFTA: "84% of apps are free, and developers pay nothing to Apple." Developers aren't "paying nothing" to develop on IOS. Apple has factored in that the average free app costs them $99 per year in hosting costs. I am certain 98% of that $99 goes to compensate for the top 10 free paid app's costs to Apple.
- swolchok 7y agoIsn't the cost $99 per year per developer account, not $99 per year per app?
- 7y ago
- noxToken 7y agoDon't you still need a way to run Xcode to publish Apple applications? So you still need to pay the one-time fee for MacOS.
- throwayEngineer 7y agoYou also need to buy an Apple computer to use Apple dev tools. Apple prices out the lower class and third world countries from developing. They are actively contributing to income disparity. Edit, anyone want to argue the opposite? The upfront cost to develop for Apple is terrible for the lowest income developers.
- dlivingston 7y agoAbsurd. If you wish to be a competitive farmer, you need a tractor. If you wish to be a competitive auto mechanic, you need a set of expensive tools and parts. If you want to be a competitive mobile app developer, you need a Mac. Every trade has a cost-of-entry. EDIT: further, porting Xcode to another platform would be non-trivial. With the addition of Marzipan, you can forget about Xcode being on any third-party platform.
- bitpush 7y agoI dont think your analogy holds up. To farm, you can buy any decent tractor. You can install your own tires, have the freedom to repair how you see fit etc. A better analogy is developing Apple Apps is like trying to farm where BigCo forces you to buy their expensive tractors with no option to use anything else. Or to use your mechanic example, imagine BMWs can only be worked if you use their proprietary tools that nobody can make.
- pjmlp 7y agoActually from the complaints I occasionally see here, it appears that it is exactly how US tractor brands work.
- briandear 7y agoAnd mechanics all over the world must buy BMW tools if they want to work on BMWs for people that own BMWs. Nobody is preventing anyone from working on cars, just BMWs. And the reason is that when you get BMW service, you expect BMW standards. Don’t work on BMWs if you don’t want to pay for the tools.
- george_perez 7y agoContext is important here. “84% of apps are free, and developers pay nothing to Apple. Like any fair marketplace, developers decide what they want to charge from a set of price tiers. We only collect a commission from developers when a digital good or service is delivered through an app. Here are some of the ways developers commonly make money on the App Store.” They’re talking about apps, and the second part of that header is referring the subject of that which is apps. They pay nothing because it’s a free app which generates no revenue to Apple (commission-wise).
- mthoms 7y ago> Context is important here. In that case, they shouldn't have used that (easily disproven) claim as a standalone headline.
- jmull 7y agoYou're right, although $99/year is nominal in the context of the cost and effort of even lightweight software development.
- saagarjha 7y ago$99/year is a reasonably large amount of money for many people around the world.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- ksec 7y agoAnd ever since the introduction of iPhone, Apple has had additional millions of $99/year from iOS developers, yet the pace of improvement for Xcode, or even its documentation has gone worst, and not better. I seriously hope they have something to show for in the coming WWDC.
- saagarjha 7y agoI have found that Xcode’s pace of improvement has gotten better in the last few years.
- threeseed 7y agoYou know you need to buy an iPhone and Mac as well right. So $99 pales in comparison to the cost of both.
- saagarjha 7y agoI don’t need to buy an iPhone and a Mac: I only really need a Mac, which I can borrow, rent, buy used, virtualize…
- fauigerzigerk 7y agoWell, you need to buy an iPhone and a Mac only once every 5 years or so whereas the $99 fee is per annum. So this can be significant for someone who is scraping by on a low budget.