4 ms·

Rent would go up and there would be basically 0 actually free apps anymore. It’s already hard to pay 99$ a year for many people. Now you have to pay some larger

Rent would go up and there would be basically 0 actually free apps anymore. It’s already hard to pay 99$ a year for many people. Now you have to pay some larger number and your app may never make money. It’s always an achievement just to get your 99$ back anyway.

stadium 5y ago
Android has mostly free apps, ad supported. iOS has more paid apps, for one because people that can afford a high end phone are more willing to pay for $99 for an app. Look at the pricing for the same app on Android vs iOS.
fsloth 5y ago
With the risk of sounding overly harsh - If 99$ per annum is a concrete financial risk maybe being a solo developer is not such a good lifepath financially. I imagine anyone capable of deploying an app store app has pretty good skills and is quite hireable. Of course individual situations can be different, but this is discussion about the "generic situation".
- atomicnumber3 5y ago
  One thing I don't like about the iOS model is that 100/yr is a significant barrier to hosting "open source" type apps out of the goodness of your heart. Concrete example: best ssh app on android is ConnectBot which is gratis and free. Best ssh app on iOS is Termius which is crippled by default, nonfree, and requires a $10/mo *subscription* to unlock. I don't mind paying for software I use, but 120/yr for a phone ssh app is too much. And this is the best app on the store, a less costly and freer competitor hasn't emerged. And I can't even sideload my own apps.
  - throwaway3699 5y ago
    > I don't mind paying for software I use, but 120/yr for a phone ssh app is too much. This is because it's much easier to earn money on the long-tail dedicated fans than the masses. Especially when those masses are likely to hate advertising based models with a passion.
  - vmladenov 5y ago
    What does Termius offer that Panic’s Prompt doesn’t? One-time fee and Panic make some of the best software I’ve used on Apple devices.
  - fsloth 5y ago
    Buy an Android phone? A Raspberry PI? A Linux box? I don't get it, if a person can't afford to be on a prestige platform like Apple, then that's not a problem, choose another platform.
- thayne 5y ago
  If you make an app as a hobby $99/year is quite a lot to distribute something you probably won't make much if any money off of.
  - fsloth 5y ago
    There is no reason hobbies should be cheap.
golemotron 5y ago
> Rent would go up and there would be basically 0 actually free apps anymore. I don't think there's nothing getting in the way of Apple charging a very high rent for Amazon's app and a very low one for a random vegan recipe app.
michaelmrose 5y ago
Logically apple makes most of their money selling IPhones based on them being desirable phones in large part because of useful apps. The cost of sending your app through automated processing and serving it to 99 people needed to make back your fee is probably on net less than a penny. Offering this service to small time developers would still be 99.99% profit so there would be no reason to make up for lost profits.

stadium 5y ago

Android has mostly free apps, ad supported. iOS has more paid apps, for one because people that can afford a high end phone are more willing to pay for $99 for an app. Look at the pricing for the same app on Android vs iOS.

fsloth 5y ago

With the risk of sounding overly harsh - If 99$ per annum is a concrete financial risk maybe being a solo developer is not such a good lifepath financially. I imagine anyone capable of deploying an app store app has pretty good skills and is quite hireable. Of course individual situations can be different, but this is discussion about the "generic situation".

atomicnumber3 5y ago
One thing I don't like about the iOS model is that 100/yr is a significant barrier to hosting "open source" type apps out of the goodness of your heart. Concrete example: best ssh app on android is ConnectBot which is gratis and free. Best ssh app on iOS is Termius which is crippled by default, nonfree, and requires a $10/mo *subscription* to unlock. I don't mind paying for software I use, but 120/yr for a phone ssh app is too much. And this is the best app on the store, a less costly and freer competitor hasn't emerged. And I can't even sideload my own apps.
- throwaway3699 5y ago
  > I don't mind paying for software I use, but 120/yr for a phone ssh app is too much. This is because it's much easier to earn money on the long-tail dedicated fans than the masses. Especially when those masses are likely to hate advertising based models with a passion.
- vmladenov 5y ago
  What does Termius offer that Panic’s Prompt doesn’t? One-time fee and Panic make some of the best software I’ve used on Apple devices.
- fsloth 5y ago
  Buy an Android phone? A Raspberry PI? A Linux box? I don't get it, if a person can't afford to be on a prestige platform like Apple, then that's not a problem, choose another platform.
thayne 5y ago
If you make an app as a hobby $99/year is quite a lot to distribute something you probably won't make much if any money off of.
- fsloth 5y ago
  There is no reason hobbies should be cheap.

golemotron 5y ago

> Rent would go up and there would be basically 0 actually free apps anymore. I don't think there's nothing getting in the way of Apple charging a very high rent for Amazon's app and a very low one for a random vegan recipe app.

michaelmrose 5y ago

Logically apple makes most of their money selling IPhones based on them being desirable phones in large part because of useful apps. The cost of sending your app through automated processing and serving it to 99 people needed to make back your fee is probably on net less than a penny. Offering this service to small time developers would still be 99.99% profit so there would be no reason to make up for lost profits.