I guess your comparison between the Xcode price and the one of the apple computer on which it runs is legitimate. The problem here is not the cost of the packa

I guess your comparison between the Xcode price and the one of the apple computer on which it runs is legitimate. The problem here is not the cost of the package in itself -- it is indeed cheap in comparison to the aforementioned computer -- but in the fact that apple chose not to include this cost _in_ the retail price of OSX. All the bruden is dropped on the devs who then needs to re-sell their apps, generally on the app-store where they are taken another cut. Apple's strategy seems to give the maximum to the user, while charging the devs that then charge the users. They lock-in their user base, letting the devs deal with prices increases on both sides.