5 ms·

Yeah, I hear the "it's about SOX" comment a lot, and I hear the "it's about greed" comment a lot, neither of which make any sense to me... I'd love to get a rea

by tvon 16y ago

Yeah, I hear the "it's about SOX" comment a lot, and I hear the "it's about greed" comment a lot, neither of which make any sense to me... I'd love to get a real explanation.

rbarooah 16y ago
The sox comment has been explained in numerous places. Basically because Xcode comes with a purchase of a new Mac or OSX it's considered to be part of the value delivered with that purchase. If they update it later, it is regarded as delivering additional value to the original purchase. I.e. Some of the money you paid originally is accounted as having paid for the upgrade. This means that the original transaction wasn't complete until they delivered the upgrade. This means that Apple can't record all of the 'incomplete' transaction on their balance sheet as revenue. They could work around this by holding back a percentage to cover later updates but this would be stupidly complicated and they'd still have the problem of not being able to declare it complete until they were certain of never shipping any new update. Much easier to just charge a nominal fee. Obviously this seems like a Byzantine regulation, but it's not aimed at Apple - it's intended to stop certain kinds of fraud involving counting money received as revenue even though there is still a lot to deliver. As for 'it's about greed' - well they do make a lot of money and that leads people to accuse them of greed. It's just a subjective judgement.
- pyre 16y ago
  I don't buy the idea that SOX prevents 'loss leaders.'
  - rbarooah 16y ago
    Who said it did?
    - pyre 16y ago
      If XCode can't be 'given away' then I would say that SOX is preventing loss leaders, because that is essentially what XCode is. They are giving away the developer tools in an effort to attract developers to their platform. At the most basic level, it's not much different than advertising 'free after rebate' items in order to attract customers into your store.
      - rbarooah 16y ago
        But they did't give it away. It was part of the Mac people paid for. They are perfectly entitled to give stuff away. What they can't do is retroactively claim that part of what they sold you before was free.

by tvon 16y ago

Yeah, I hear the "it's about SOX" comment a lot, and I hear the "it's about greed" comment a lot, neither of which make any sense to me... I'd love to get a real explanation.

rbarooah 16y ago

The sox comment has been explained in numerous places. Basically because Xcode comes with a purchase of a new Mac or OSX it's considered to be part of the value delivered with that purchase. If they update it later, it is regarded as delivering additional value to the original purchase. I.e. Some of the money you paid originally is accounted as having paid for the upgrade. This means that the original transaction wasn't complete until they delivered the upgrade. This means that Apple can't record all of the 'incomplete' transaction on their balance sheet as revenue. They could work around this by holding back a percentage to cover later updates but this would be stupidly complicated and they'd still have the problem of not being able to declare it complete until they were certain of never shipping any new update. Much easier to just charge a nominal fee. Obviously this seems like a Byzantine regulation, but it's not aimed at Apple - it's intended to stop certain kinds of fraud involving counting money received as revenue even though there is still a lot to deliver. As for 'it's about greed' - well they do make a lot of money and that leads people to accuse them of greed. It's just a subjective judgement.

pyre 16y ago
I don't buy the idea that SOX prevents 'loss leaders.'
- rbarooah 16y ago
  Who said it did?
  - pyre 16y ago
    If XCode can't be 'given away' then I would say that SOX is preventing loss leaders, because that is essentially what XCode is. They are giving away the developer tools in an effort to attract developers to their platform. At the most basic level, it's not much different than advertising 'free after rebate' items in order to attract customers into your store.
    - rbarooah 16y ago
      But they did't give it away. It was part of the Mac people paid for. They are perfectly entitled to give stuff away. What they can't do is retroactively claim that part of what they sold you before was free.