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How is the letter sanctimonious? It's acknowledging the fact that Apple has added value to DHH's business without actually having made any money from it. If any
by dnh44 6y ago
How is the letter sanctimonious? It's acknowledging the fact that Apple has added value to DHH's business without actually having made any money from it. If anything DHH sounds a bit self-entitled.
- camgunz 6y agoThis letter acts like Apple is doing Hey a favor but, without Hey and other devs creating the entire value proposition for the iPhone, it would be worthless.
- dnh44 6y agoIf the value proposition for iOS developers wasn't acceptable there wouldn't be any iOS developers.
- Yetanfou 6y agoMake that "there won't be any iOS developers left" and you're closer to the truth.
- camgunz 6y agoOr it's people who think they'll someday make money on their app, just like there are people who think they'll someday make money on their domain name or their Mary Kay sales, but they don't.
- dnh44 6y agoYou're kind of making my point for me here. It sounds like you're saying the value proposition is so good that people are willing to risk $99 per year on the off chance their low-effort app might be a hit? They must know the chances are low but think that $99 isn't a lot to risk or spend.
- camgunz 6y agoSomething isn’t a good value simply because you can convince someone to pay for it. Econ 101 will fill your head with the rational market hypothesis and perfect information, but humans are irrational and have nothing even approaching perfect information. We’re bamboozled all the time.
- pier25 6y agoAlso, Apple insists that it is distributing the Basecamp app for free which is really not true. Every developer pays $99 every year to Apple. Considering there are over 20M iOS devs that's over $2B per year.
- dnh44 6y ago$99 a year for free developer tools and access to the marketplace is really good value. There wouldn't be 20M iOS devs if the $99 a year and 30% didn't represent a good opportunity.
- pier25 6y agoMy point is simply that developers pay to be able to upload apps. There is no charity from Apple to host free apps.
- dnh44 6y agoClearly Apple benefits from it too and it's mutually beneficial for Apple, developers, and users. But it's not without cost to Apple. I'm not sure how much Apple pays their app reviewers but I suspect it could easily cost more than $99 for a single review of a non-trivial app. And it's the app reviews that creates a marketplace where the users feel safe in trying and buying apps without worry of malware or complicated cancellations of subscriptions. They also make it really easy to delete apps which is pretty nice. I think if anything the pricing structure benefits small independent developers over the bigger players.
- pier25 6y ago> Clearly Apple benefits from it too Clearly, which is why it's no charity like their letter implies.
- dnh44 6y agoApple, as a distributor for DHH, has mentioned that they've provided value to DHH that helps him make money without having made any money from him directly. It's extremely charitable for them to do that. Even vendors at a flea market generally pay something to be able to sell.