4 ms·

What is the issue of charging $100 for the developer accounts?

beeboobaa3 2y ago
It's just ridiculous. The fee is too low to actually matter too apple, and it's ridiculous to have to pay a yearly fee so you can add value to Apple's ecosystem for them. You even have to pay it to publish free/open source apps. Then if you dare to think about charging for your app, they take 30% on top of that. It also means hobby programmers are much less likely to get started with developing for iPhones because for most of them it'll be a (at least) $100/year loss.
- mingus88 2y ago
  Framing this expense to hobby programmers as a “$100/year loss” seems opposed to the entire concept of a hobby. Everything will be a loss; it’s a hobby. If you are doing it to profit then it’s a side gig or an actual job. What kind of hobby can you pick up for less than $100? You can’t even take up hiking or walking without spending that much on shoes and socks.
  - itsdrewmiller 2y ago
    You can’t take up app development for only $100 either. Especially when you can only develop on a Mac.
  - beeboobaa3 2y ago
    I was 13 when I started developing for my android phone. I did not have $100 to spend, or if I did, I was not willing to spend it on this. Developing for my android phone was 100% free with no restrictions. Putting my app on the play store was a one-time fee of $20. So, android development, for one. Also Windows development. And Linux development. Web development, too. Pretty much any platform other than Apple. And I suppose we should just ignore those who live in poorer countries, right?
    - mingus88 2y ago
      Not willing to pay the $100 is a choice you can make, absolutely But to frame this, again, as some steep expense that prices out young talent is very weird. Developing for android or Linux is not free. You need to have a lot of resources already to get started here, too. In fact there is an argument here that if you want to test on any variety of supported android or Linux hardware you can easily spend a ton of money here too, far more than the limited number of apple configurations I started coding on the Commodore 64 and that was a massive expense for my family. I suspect at 13 years old you had a lot of resources at your disposal also. Again, it’s fine to say that a developer account is not worth $100 for you personally. But let be real about it. Nothing is free.
      - beeboobaa3 2y ago
        You might be the weird & privileged one if you think that $100/year is not a lot of money for some people, certainly those who are not chasing profit (i.e. 13 year olds who later grow up to be valuable developers). > Developing for android or Linux is not free. You need to have a lot of resources already to get started here, too It absolutely is, if you already have the device, which can be a hand-me-down from a parent or sibling like it was in my case. > But let be real about it. Nothing is free It's an objective fact that other platforms do not have this barrier in place. It is a fact that Apple is the special one here, demanding a repeated payment that is significantly higher than the one-off payment of their direct competitor ($100/year vs $20 one time, and that $20 is only necessary if you want to use their store). You can stick your head in the sand all you want, but that doesn't change the facts. By the way, that app of mine? Wound up making me $5k which was huge for a young child, and Google made $800. Easy money for them. Apple, of course, got nothing because of their barriers. And I never would've gotten the chance at all if Google had had similar policies in place.
  - throwitaway1123 2y ago
    > What kind of hobby can you pick up for less than $100? You can publish an extension to the Chrome Web Store for a one time fee of 5$ (and you don't need XCode or a Mac to do it). You can build a website behind a login wall using social sign in via oAuth for free without building a homegrown authentication system (rather than paying 100$ a year for Sign in with Apple which doesn't even adhere to the oAuth spec properly).
- Isamu 2y ago
  I believe the fee is a simple first-order throttling mechanism to tamp down on the easy creation of thousands of developer accounts, as a way for actors to evade developer bans. But also to help with scaling issues. It’s low-effort for Apple and has some hassle reducing benefits for them.
  - beeboobaa3 2y ago
    Sure, Google does that with a one-time fee of $20. You don't need to gouge the people who add value to your platform repeatedly. Apple is already doing that with their 30% which is more than enough to pay for all of their expenses. Their app store is an absolute cash cow, they're fine.
    - votepaunchy 2y ago
      No one thinking about the $100 fee is paying more than 15%, if they are paying anything at all.
      - beeboobaa3 2y ago
        Not sure what you're on about? You're talking about apple, so anyone wanting to develop for their platform is paying $100/year, and 30% of all revenue made via their app. You don't really have a choice. Apple forces you to use apple pay, takes their cut, and you get the remaining money if you're lucky. They have recently been forced by the EU to offer some, supposedly, more amicable programs. I haven't looked into the details of those, because fuck em.

It's just ridiculous. The fee is too low to actually matter too apple, and it's ridiculous to have to pay a yearly fee so you can add value to Apple's ecosystem for them. You even have to pay it to publish free/open source apps. Then if you dare to think about charging for your app, they take 30% on top of that. It also means hobby programmers are much less likely to get started with developing for iPhones because for most of them it'll be a (at least) $100/year loss.

mingus88 2y ago
Framing this expense to hobby programmers as a “$100/year loss” seems opposed to the entire concept of a hobby. Everything will be a loss; it’s a hobby. If you are doing it to profit then it’s a side gig or an actual job. What kind of hobby can you pick up for less than $100? You can’t even take up hiking or walking without spending that much on shoes and socks.
- itsdrewmiller 2y ago
  You can’t take up app development for only $100 either. Especially when you can only develop on a Mac.
- beeboobaa3 2y ago
  I was 13 when I started developing for my android phone. I did not have $100 to spend, or if I did, I was not willing to spend it on this. Developing for my android phone was 100% free with no restrictions. Putting my app on the play store was a one-time fee of $20. So, android development, for one. Also Windows development. And Linux development. Web development, too. Pretty much any platform other than Apple. And I suppose we should just ignore those who live in poorer countries, right?
  - mingus88 2y ago
    Not willing to pay the $100 is a choice you can make, absolutely But to frame this, again, as some steep expense that prices out young talent is very weird. Developing for android or Linux is not free. You need to have a lot of resources already to get started here, too. In fact there is an argument here that if you want to test on any variety of supported android or Linux hardware you can easily spend a ton of money here too, far more than the limited number of apple configurations I started coding on the Commodore 64 and that was a massive expense for my family. I suspect at 13 years old you had a lot of resources at your disposal also. Again, it’s fine to say that a developer account is not worth $100 for you personally. But let be real about it. Nothing is free.
    - beeboobaa3 2y ago
      You might be the weird & privileged one if you think that $100/year is not a lot of money for some people, certainly those who are not chasing profit (i.e. 13 year olds who later grow up to be valuable developers). > Developing for android or Linux is not free. You need to have a lot of resources already to get started here, too It absolutely is, if you already have the device, which can be a hand-me-down from a parent or sibling like it was in my case. > But let be real about it. Nothing is free It's an objective fact that other platforms do not have this barrier in place. It is a fact that Apple is the special one here, demanding a repeated payment that is significantly higher than the one-off payment of their direct competitor ($100/year vs $20 one time, and that $20 is only necessary if you want to use their store). You can stick your head in the sand all you want, but that doesn't change the facts. By the way, that app of mine? Wound up making me $5k which was huge for a young child, and Google made $800. Easy money for them. Apple, of course, got nothing because of their barriers. And I never would've gotten the chance at all if Google had had similar policies in place.
- throwitaway1123 2y ago
  > What kind of hobby can you pick up for less than $100? You can publish an extension to the Chrome Web Store for a one time fee of 5$ (and you don't need XCode or a Mac to do it). You can build a website behind a login wall using social sign in via oAuth for free without building a homegrown authentication system (rather than paying 100$ a year for Sign in with Apple which doesn't even adhere to the oAuth spec properly).
Isamu 2y ago
I believe the fee is a simple first-order throttling mechanism to tamp down on the easy creation of thousands of developer accounts, as a way for actors to evade developer bans. But also to help with scaling issues. It’s low-effort for Apple and has some hassle reducing benefits for them.
- beeboobaa3 2y ago
  Sure, Google does that with a one-time fee of $20. You don't need to gouge the people who add value to your platform repeatedly. Apple is already doing that with their 30% which is more than enough to pay for all of their expenses. Their app store is an absolute cash cow, they're fine.
  - votepaunchy 2y ago
    No one thinking about the $100 fee is paying more than 15%, if they are paying anything at all.
    - beeboobaa3 2y ago
      Not sure what you're on about? You're talking about apple, so anyone wanting to develop for their platform is paying $100/year, and 30% of all revenue made via their app. You don't really have a choice. Apple forces you to use apple pay, takes their cut, and you get the remaining money if you're lucky. They have recently been forced by the EU to offer some, supposedly, more amicable programs. I haven't looked into the details of those, because fuck em.