3 ms·
What evidence do you have that a 10% fee is enough to operate the App Store at the scale Apple does? When the App Store was launched, Steve Jobs said they plan
by pwinnski 6y ago
What evidence do you have that a 10% fee is enough to operate the App Store at the scale Apple does?
When the App Store was launched, Steve Jobs said they plan to run it at break-even, no profit, and for quite a few years that was exactly what they did. Now they are profiting from the App Store and clearly could continue to run it as they do on a lower percentage, but I don't think 10% is that number. If they could run it on 10%, they wouldn't have operated it without profit for the first quite-a-few years at 30%!
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- ac29 6y agoI cant find any evidence in their financial reports of Apple breaking down sales and cost of sales for the App store in early years. I would be very, very surprised though if it was not profitable almost immediately (unless you creatively move around numbers and claim 100% of the iPhone's R&D was a cost of sale for the app store).
- pwinnski 6y agoYou are correct, I am taking their early claims at face value, but they never produced supporting numbers. I would be shocked if their claims weren't true, however. Because of the lack of numbers, I'm not sure how long it was before running at break-even ceased to be a thing, though.