3 ms·

What It Was Like to Sell Mac Apps Online in 2003

33 points by panic 5y ago

peterburkimsher 5y ago
I remember Kagi, especially from NetNewsWire and other shareware! At the time I was only 13 and didn't have a credit card, so couldn't make online purchases. The first thing I did on my 18th birthday, before leaving my room, was to open a PayPal account so I could finally buy things without asking parents. The Kagi model was fine from what I saw, though my experience was always just using trial software and waiting 15 seconds to dismiss the message about Kagi. It's certainly better than the current model, where I can't even download older versions of apps, never mind pay for them.
microtherion 5y ago
The article skips over the sadder part of Kagi going abruptly out of business, setting app authors scrambling to find another payment provider with no advance warning, and, I think, ultimately paying them less than they were owed for the last 1-2 months of Kagi's existence. https://tidbits.com/2016/08/04/kagi-shuts-down-after-falling-prey-to-fraud/ https://tidbits.com/2016/08/04/kagi-shuts-down-after-falling...
- bsder 5y ago
  This really underscores the CEO who commented (paraphrased): "We're not a payment provider company who happens to detect fraud. We're a fraud detection company who happens to accept payments." :(
- avipars 5y ago
  > The article skips over the sadder part of Kagi going abruptly out of business, setting app authors scrambling to find another payment provider with no advance warning, and, I think, ultimately paying them less than they were owed for the last 1-2 months of Kagi's existence. > https://tidbits.com/2016/08/04/kagi-shuts-down-after-falling https://tidbits.com/2016/08/04/kagi-shuts-down-after-falling... I wonder how the legal advice company is doing
inspector-g 5y ago
I sincerely hope this post gets traction. Every time Apple makes the claim about the App Store “being better than brick and mortar distribution” it makes my blood start to heat up. They are presenting a known-incomplete argument and misrepresenting the past/facts. Then, similarly, my hackles go up every time someone says “Apple has the right to make money off their platform” and no one remembers to bring up that, in fact, Apple does: $99/year per developer account. I recall digging through the stats a while back and estimating the total sum is hundreds of millions of dollars per year for Apple - whether or not a dev actually makes a cent from a customer.
908B64B197 5y ago
> Even more importantly: Kagi didn’t review our app. I suppose, if we had been selling something egregious in some way, they might have learned of it and cut us off. But that’s a standard business relationship. Kagi was not a gatekeeper. The community of Mac software vendors was tiny in 2003. And the "No Virus on Macs" marketing was true because of the tiny marketshare.
- tinus_hn 5y ago
  > And the "No Virus on Macs" marketing was true because of the tiny marketshare. Only partly, Apple also lacked some of the worse holes in Windows like the autorun feature and the unprotected omnipotent macros in Office documents.
JKCalhoun 5y ago
> Apple likes to claim that the App Store replaced the system of selling software in physical boxes in stores and over the mail. I guess I had not heard them claim that. The history of selling software in an interesting one though that has definitely changed with the times. I remember when selling fonts was a viable business. I remember when shareware was a thing. A lot of ma and pa software companies went the way of ... oh, ma and pa video rentals, ma & pa copy (Xerox) shops, etc....

33 points by panic 5y ago

I remember Kagi, especially from NetNewsWire and other shareware! At the time I was only 13 and didn't have a credit card, so couldn't make online purchases. The first thing I did on my 18th birthday, before leaving my room, was to open a PayPal account so I could finally buy things without asking parents. The Kagi model was fine from what I saw, though my experience was always just using trial software and waiting 15 seconds to dismiss the message about Kagi. It's certainly better than the current model, where I can't even download older versions of apps, never mind pay for them.

microtherion 5y ago

The article skips over the sadder part of Kagi going abruptly out of business, setting app authors scrambling to find another payment provider with no advance warning, and, I think, ultimately paying them less than they were owed for the last 1-2 months of Kagi's existence. https://tidbits.com/2016/08/04/kagi-shuts-down-after-falling-prey-to-fraud/ https://tidbits.com/2016/08/04/kagi-shuts-down-after-falling...

bsder 5y ago
This really underscores the CEO who commented (paraphrased): "We're not a payment provider company who happens to detect fraud. We're a fraud detection company who happens to accept payments." :(
avipars 5y ago
> The article skips over the sadder part of Kagi going abruptly out of business, setting app authors scrambling to find another payment provider with no advance warning, and, I think, ultimately paying them less than they were owed for the last 1-2 months of Kagi's existence. > https://tidbits.com/2016/08/04/kagi-shuts-down-after-falling https://tidbits.com/2016/08/04/kagi-shuts-down-after-falling... I wonder how the legal advice company is doing

inspector-g 5y ago

I sincerely hope this post gets traction. Every time Apple makes the claim about the App Store “being better than brick and mortar distribution” it makes my blood start to heat up. They are presenting a known-incomplete argument and misrepresenting the past/facts. Then, similarly, my hackles go up every time someone says “Apple has the right to make money off their platform” and no one remembers to bring up that, in fact, Apple does: $99/year per developer account. I recall digging through the stats a while back and estimating the total sum is hundreds of millions of dollars per year for Apple - whether or not a dev actually makes a cent from a customer.

908B64B197 5y ago

> Even more importantly: Kagi didn’t review our app. I suppose, if we had been selling something egregious in some way, they might have learned of it and cut us off. But that’s a standard business relationship. Kagi was not a gatekeeper. The community of Mac software vendors was tiny in 2003. And the "No Virus on Macs" marketing was true because of the tiny marketshare.

tinus_hn 5y ago
> And the "No Virus on Macs" marketing was true because of the tiny marketshare. Only partly, Apple also lacked some of the worse holes in Windows like the autorun feature and the unprotected omnipotent macros in Office documents.

JKCalhoun 5y ago

> Apple likes to claim that the App Store replaced the system of selling software in physical boxes in stores and over the mail. I guess I had not heard them claim that. The history of selling software in an interesting one though that has definitely changed with the times. I remember when selling fonts was a viable business. I remember when shareware was a thing. A lot of ma and pa software companies went the way of ... oh, ma and pa video rentals, ma & pa copy (Xerox) shops, etc....