4 ms·

I see the developer fee as just a barrier to entry to submit apps to the marketing place - kinda just to stop the riff-raff. I suspect it also is linked to the

I see the developer fee as just a barrier to entry to submit apps to the marketing place - kinda just to stop the riff-raff. I suspect it also is linked to the the legal agreement as some type of consideration.

TheAmazingIdiot 15y ago
There already exists a $1500 barrier to entry: the cost of a Mac. Thanks though, if I want to load programs on my iPhone, I'll do so through Cydia.
- nachteilig 15y ago
  Mac mini starts at $599. And no need to be hostile--he's making a legitimate point. By charging a relatively modest fee to use the store--the tools themselves are free, unlike things like VS--Apple is making sure people have minute skin in the game.
  - SpikeDad 15y ago
    Of course. Even here people can't resist the Apple hate pronunciations. What do people think they'd be developing if it wasn't for Apple? Would the $X billions of dollars paid to App developers be made some other way? Basic games?
    - TheAmazingIdiot 15y ago
      I didn't believe I was being hostile. It's just a matter of fact statement that if I need programs loaded for me and friends, I'll send it to Cydia. I cannot afford a MacBook, nor the 100$ fee to develop.
jamilb 15y ago
I'll agree -- the $100 cost to developers is also a psychological one. You're more likely to carefully consider the development of your app if you've invested financially in it. Also, imagine the hordes of crappy apps that would come through if the barrier of entry were just OS X and an internet connection. The App Store review process simply wouldn't be able to keep up. Apple's primary focus has always been on quality and always will be. I'm not saying I condone locking developers into paying fees for platform-specific development, but as an iPhone user, I don't want to wade through a bloated app store to find something useful. If Apple could both increase the effectiveness and iterative speed of the App review process, I think they could afford to lower the iOS developer fee a little, and perhaps even make it free.
talmand 15y ago
I see it more as a way to assign value to the concept. If one pays for the access then someone is more likely to do something with it. I once met some guys that would offer free lessons in jiu-jitsu at the local college, but they had more students once they started charging. The legal agreement is an interesting thought. As for a barrier to low-quality apps, it doesn't seem to have worked.
rst 15y ago
If that's the intent, they could just as easily (and more sensibly) charge the fee when you submit your first app into the store. As is, they seem to want you to pay up even to deploy an app you wrote onto your own phone. That's just obnoxious. (Googling around, I can find workarounds, but most seem to require jailbreaks or other strange mummery; see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/246422/how-can-i-deploy-an-iphone-application-from-xcode-to-a-real-iphone-device http://stackoverflow.com/questions/246422/how-can-i-deploy-a... for a procedure that's alleged to work without requiring that, but which does require other undocumented mummery with certificates.) Also, it keeps a lot of people from learning to tinker in ways that could develop into job skills later. While $100 is probably a nuisance fee to most of the people posting here, there are a lot of people in the US (to say nothing of the rest of the world) for whom it blows their hobby budget for the month, if not for the year.

TheAmazingIdiot 15y ago

There already exists a $1500 barrier to entry: the cost of a Mac. Thanks though, if I want to load programs on my iPhone, I'll do so through Cydia.

nachteilig 15y ago
Mac mini starts at $599. And no need to be hostile--he's making a legitimate point. By charging a relatively modest fee to use the store--the tools themselves are free, unlike things like VS--Apple is making sure people have minute skin in the game.
- SpikeDad 15y ago
  Of course. Even here people can't resist the Apple hate pronunciations. What do people think they'd be developing if it wasn't for Apple? Would the $X billions of dollars paid to App developers be made some other way? Basic games?
  - TheAmazingIdiot 15y ago
    I didn't believe I was being hostile. It's just a matter of fact statement that if I need programs loaded for me and friends, I'll send it to Cydia. I cannot afford a MacBook, nor the 100$ fee to develop.

jamilb 15y ago

I'll agree -- the $100 cost to developers is also a psychological one. You're more likely to carefully consider the development of your app if you've invested financially in it. Also, imagine the hordes of crappy apps that would come through if the barrier of entry were just OS X and an internet connection. The App Store review process simply wouldn't be able to keep up. Apple's primary focus has always been on quality and always will be. I'm not saying I condone locking developers into paying fees for platform-specific development, but as an iPhone user, I don't want to wade through a bloated app store to find something useful. If Apple could both increase the effectiveness and iterative speed of the App review process, I think they could afford to lower the iOS developer fee a little, and perhaps even make it free.

talmand 15y ago

I see it more as a way to assign value to the concept. If one pays for the access then someone is more likely to do something with it. I once met some guys that would offer free lessons in jiu-jitsu at the local college, but they had more students once they started charging. The legal agreement is an interesting thought. As for a barrier to low-quality apps, it doesn't seem to have worked.

rst 15y ago

If that's the intent, they could just as easily (and more sensibly) charge the fee when you submit your first app into the store. As is, they seem to want you to pay up even to deploy an app you wrote onto your own phone. That's just obnoxious. (Googling around, I can find workarounds, but most seem to require jailbreaks or other strange mummery; see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/246422/how-can-i-deploy-an-iphone-application-from-xcode-to-a-real-iphone-device http://stackoverflow.com/questions/246422/how-can-i-deploy-a... for a procedure that's alleged to work without requiring that, but which does require other undocumented mummery with certificates.) Also, it keeps a lot of people from learning to tinker in ways that could develop into job skills later. While $100 is probably a nuisance fee to most of the people posting here, there are a lot of people in the US (to say nothing of the rest of the world) for whom it blows their hobby budget for the month, if not for the year.