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But there's more to the issue than just safety checking. The "App store tax" really is like a tax: it helps pay for developing the platform necessary for the a

by gwd 7y ago

But there's more to the issue than just safety checking. The "App store tax" really is like a tax: it helps pay for developing the platform necessary for the apps to run on. Without that revenue, Apple would have to start looking for other ways of getting revenue -- for instance, selling my personal data.

rchaud 7y ago
They already get that with the $99/yr fee for the Apple Developer program: https://developer.apple.com/support/compare-memberships/ https://developer.apple.com/support/compare-memberships/
skinnymuch 7y ago
Apple charges $100 a year which provides some money. Their 30% charge can’t possibly be mostly a tax in the way you’re saying. Don’t they lower their cut of iAPs to 15% after first year? Likely still making a profit on that. What additional things is Apple doing for the additional 15% to 30% at first for iAP subscriptions, or for normal purchases, or for one time iAPs? I’m not saying Apple is wrong to make as much profit as they want. But to say any more than a 10% take at most (likely less) is a tax to have the ecosystem running can’t be true. Not with the $100 a year on top as well.
- zaroth 7y ago
  Apple has made over $40 billion from the App Store since it launched, and paid out over $100 billion to developers. The $100/yr developer account fee is an anti-spam measure, not an actually significant revenue source. Apple and Google App Stores combined currently generate almost $100 billion in revenue per year. This is the biggest and best revenue source available on the planet for smaller developers. Easy end-user side loading, and third party app stores is a direct attack on this ecosystem and will damage the livelihoods of developers who will have no way to fight against massive increases in piracy that will result.
  - oblio 7y ago
    > Easy end-user side loading, and third party app stores is a direct attack on this ecosystem and will damage the livelihoods of developers who will have no way to fight against massive increases in piracy that will result. Windows developers seemed to be doing pretty well, even without an app store...
    - zaroth 7y ago
      I don’t know what the historical software sales revenues were for boxed software in the Windows desktop era. But I am pretty sure the vast majority of applications on the App Store in the $1-$10 range would simply not have been possible to monetize in the Windows XP era. Remember shareware? What percent of people actually paid for that? You think the market was even 1% the size it is now? CompUSA’s best annual revenue was $2 billion and only a fraction of that was software, and only a fraction of a faction of that was anything but enterprise software and big studio games. And the market for apps on phones was a fraction of 1% of what we have now from the App Stores.

by gwd 7y ago

rchaud 7y ago

They already get that with the $99/yr fee for the Apple Developer program: https://developer.apple.com/support/compare-memberships/ https://developer.apple.com/support/compare-memberships/

skinnymuch 7y ago

Apple charges $100 a year which provides some money. Their 30% charge can’t possibly be mostly a tax in the way you’re saying. Don’t they lower their cut of iAPs to 15% after first year? Likely still making a profit on that. What additional things is Apple doing for the additional 15% to 30% at first for iAP subscriptions, or for normal purchases, or for one time iAPs? I’m not saying Apple is wrong to make as much profit as they want. But to say any more than a 10% take at most (likely less) is a tax to have the ecosystem running can’t be true. Not with the $100 a year on top as well.

zaroth 7y ago
Apple has made over $40 billion from the App Store since it launched, and paid out over $100 billion to developers. The $100/yr developer account fee is an anti-spam measure, not an actually significant revenue source. Apple and Google App Stores combined currently generate almost $100 billion in revenue per year. This is the biggest and best revenue source available on the planet for smaller developers. Easy end-user side loading, and third party app stores is a direct attack on this ecosystem and will damage the livelihoods of developers who will have no way to fight against massive increases in piracy that will result.
- oblio 7y ago
  > Easy end-user side loading, and third party app stores is a direct attack on this ecosystem and will damage the livelihoods of developers who will have no way to fight against massive increases in piracy that will result. Windows developers seemed to be doing pretty well, even without an app store...
  - zaroth 7y ago
    I don’t know what the historical software sales revenues were for boxed software in the Windows desktop era. But I am pretty sure the vast majority of applications on the App Store in the $1-$10 range would simply not have been possible to monetize in the Windows XP era. Remember shareware? What percent of people actually paid for that? You think the market was even 1% the size it is now? CompUSA’s best annual revenue was $2 billion and only a fraction of that was software, and only a fraction of a faction of that was anything but enterprise software and big studio games. And the market for apps on phones was a fraction of 1% of what we have now from the App Stores.