5 ms·
Say hello to the new boss, same as the old boss. Amazon, Apple et al are becoming new middle men of the digital marketplace. Want to sell content online? If yo
by msy 16y ago
Say hello to the new boss, same as the old boss.
Amazon, Apple et al are becoming new middle men of the digital marketplace. Want to sell content online? If you want mass market exposure we'll have 30-70% of the revenue from the sweat of your brow and you better thank us for the privilege.
I wonder how long until they band together and form a lobby group called the Digital Content Providers Association of America.
- cooldeal 16y agoWith Android atleast you can sell the app from your website or any market. With iPhone apps there is no chance of that at all. (Cydia doesn't really count).
- GrandMasterBirt 16y agoYes but the problem is when markets hijack business models. Like what apple did with in-app sales.
- samatman 16y agoWhy doesn't Cydia count? I've never understood the logic here. Since the Supreme Court has determined that jailbreaking and alternate markets are legal, what does it matter that Apple would prefer you didn't install it? But then, I've spent probably 30 bucks and counting on the Cydia store.
- CJefferson 16y agoCydia doesn't count because Apple keeps blocking holes which allow jailbreaking, so with new devices, there can be quite a long time period before you can get back into Cydia.
- irons 16y agoThe jailbreak ruling wasn't from the Supreme Court, it was from the US copyright office, which found that jailbreaking a smartphone was a legitimate exception to DMCA prohibitions on using technical means to beat copy protection. The ruling means you can't be sued for jailbreaking. It doesn't give you a constitutional right to an unlocked phone, and it doesn't oblige Apple or AT&T or Google or HTC or whomever to support a jailbroken device. It certainly doesn't impair their ability to use technical measures (aka, fixing bugs) to impair your ability to jailbreak. Since no one had ever been sued for jailbreaking (and similar policy was not applied to, for instance, the PS3), the practical effect of the copyright ruling was close to nil.
- swombat 16y agoAnd, like all middlemen, they very much deserve their cut. What are you going to do with that pile of books in your cellar if there's no bookshop to sell them for you? Open your own single-book store? If you build a store, you should certainly get a healthy cut of what you sell through your store.
- Maascamp 16y agoI certainly wouldn't generalize that to _ALL_ middle men. Have you heard about sub prime mortgages..?
- swombat 16y agoOk, probably not all. Let's say "many".
- msy 16y agoThe problem isn't the existence of middle men, it's when oligopolies form that can bully producers and consumers alike and in the process stifle innovation and creativity.
- gyardley 16y agoOf course middlemen deserve a healthy cut. The issue here isn't whether Amazon deserves a cut, it's whether their incentives are aligned with the developers who use their platform. Amazon's control over pricing allows it to make decisions beneficial to the platform as a whole but potentially harmful to the individual developer. Incentives are never going to be perfectly aligned, but letting the developer control pricing would make them a lot more aligned than they are now.
- Retric 16y ago10% is a healthy cut 30% when they are not subsidizing the platform is a slap in the face. 30% and they get to restrict what you do with other platforms AND control your price structure is insane. Under these terms you any developer that uses Amazon marketplace is stupid. They might make slightly more money in the sort term but you are giving up huge long term gains. PS: I am seriously considering boycotting Amazon over this.