Anti trust law is federal, not state.
In any case, this is my point. People wave their hands and claim "antitrust" but nobody cites a law.
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App Store Fee Cut Attracts Criticism From Major Developers Like Spotify and Epic
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In any case, this is my point. People wave their hands and claim "antitrust" but nobody cites a law.
Can someone break down what is actually paid for in the 30% commission that Apple takes (and potentially how that differs from what is covered by the $99/299 dev fee)?
From my understanding, it's basically just payment processing for IAP? I've seen others saying it covers advertising too, but from everything I've heard, devs still have to pay quite a bit to get the App Store just to surface their apps, even when searched for by name, regardless of whether they use IAP or not. Apple also seems to still "own" the customer and their information.
It seems to me like the ones really benefiting from Apple's services are the small devs, and yet the bigger ones appear to be the ones really footing the bill. Am I off-base here?
From my understanding, it's basically just payment processing for IAP? I've seen others saying it covers advertising too, but from everything I've heard, devs still have to pay quite a bit to get the App Store just to surface their apps, even when searched for by name, regardless of whether they use IAP or not. Apple also seems to still "own" the customer and their information.
It seems to me like the ones really benefiting from Apple's services are the small devs, and yet the bigger ones appear to be the ones really footing the bill. Am I off-base here?
The DHH dude on Twitter seems personally affected with all of those reaches. There is a reason apple has the best store out of all competitors in my opinion. These folks want it there way or the highway. I hope they get the highway...
If you make money in someone’s store, they usually require a cut of that. Pretty normal. And have you paid taxes before? The more money you make the higher the percentage.
There is an earlier article that explains when you go over $1 mil, only the amount after $1 mil gets the 30%. The first mil stays at 15%. Then, the following year (let’s call it year 2), you start at that 30% tier. If you don’t make $1 mil again in year 2, you’re eligible for the 15% tier again in year 3 (until you hit $1 mil again).
Except Apple isn't a government and its commissions aren't taxes. And traditionally, stores will give favourable rates to the people or companies that bring in more money, so it's unusual that Apple seems to have done the opposite (with a few notable exceptions).
Either way, I wasn't really asking for someone to vaguely justify why they charge those rates, but to explain what they actually entail.
I really like DHH (especially his motorsport exploits) but I disagree with him here. He's pretending to be the little man, standing up to the big man, when in reality he is one of the big men, pretending to fight for the little man. Now Apple treats the little man better, like he wanted, and he's not happy because it turns out he is the big man.
A few inaccuracies too. Apple doesn't just take the money for payment processing. It's also for distribution. And it iOS isn't a monopoly computing platform - it isn't even the monopoly on phone platforms.
I 100% agree that 30% for small developers was too much. I think 15% is maybe a little too high, but is still reasonable (lets be honest - all Apple products are too expensive - the £100 watch strap lol). I do like DHH, but I disagree with his stance here.
A few inaccuracies too. Apple doesn't just take the money for payment processing. It's also for distribution. And it iOS isn't a monopoly computing platform - it isn't even the monopoly on phone platforms.
I 100% agree that 30% for small developers was too much. I think 15% is maybe a little too high, but is still reasonable (lets be honest - all Apple products are too expensive - the £100 watch strap lol). I do like DHH, but I disagree with his stance here.
Why is 30% too high and who gets to make that determination. Remember the $99 yearly dev fee covers a lot of ground and the app store provides a complete platform for management of your app. For those who believe the 30% is too high, nobody is forcing an enrollment into the developer program. For those who want Apple to do the app store their way, and not Apple's way...that isn't happening either.
These companies will only be satisfied when the cut is down to Zero. Bunch of crybabies.
In Europe it would be this one from the Treaty on European Union (clearly Apple would argue that it does not have a dominant market position and that, even if it did, it was not abusing it, but those are both arguable points).
"Article 102
(ex Article 82 TEC)
Any abuse by one or more undertakings of a dominant position within the internal market or in a substantial part of it shall be prohibited as incompatible with the internal market in so far as it may affect trade between Member States.
Such abuse may, in particular, consist in:
(a) directly or indirectly imposing unfair purchase or selling prices or other unfair trading conditions;
(b) limiting production, markets or technical development to the prejudice of consumers;
(c) applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage;
(d) making the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by the other parties of supplementary obligations which, by their nature or according to commercial usage, have no connection with the subject of such contracts."
This is a poor analogy. Every online store and physical store charges a markup but they have competitors that keep their greed in check. The market won't allow them to charge more than what their competitors charge or a fair market value, therefor benefiting consumers. In the case of Apple, we only have one choice for software for our phones, which means Apple can be as greedy as they want to be, and we, the consumers, ultimately pay the price.
In general it seems like Apple fanboys are viewing this as an Apple vs. developer argument and siding with Apple, because that's what Apple fanboys do, but it's actually Apple vs. consumers and consumers are ultimately getting the short end of the stick here.
i don't see how epic can complain when they have a similar structure for their engine.
Didn't take long for the usual whiners and complainers to go nuts. What I still don't understand is why Spotify and Epic care. Clearly they have their own payment models and can bypass the Apple Store buy-in-app altogether and not pay any fees. So what is their end game here.
Clearly Spotify doesn't even pay the artists, maybe we need to form a coalition "Pay Artists Fairly Coalition"!
Clearly Spotify doesn't even pay the artists, maybe we need to form a coalition "Pay Artists Fairly Coalition"!
I am sorry, and please let me know if I am missing something. I just read the small article and tweets from that guy. How is this bad? To me, arbitrary would be Apple saying Spotify must pay 30% but Epic only needs to pay 20%. This doesn't seem arbitrary at all. Apple is temporarily adjusting the amount taken for all developers making less than a certain amount. That doesn't seem arbitrary at all.
That is ill-thought. In the case of Apple which does not dominate any market, there are plenty of competitors, just simply buy a different computer or phone. Surprise, Google also charges 30% as do all the other app stores. Darn, don't you hate it when your argument just goes "poof"?
True, and Spotify probably doesn't even pay $1 million, most of their fees are direct charges through subscriptions and bypass the App Store altogether. The only reason why someone would go through google (also 30% BTW) or Apple would be if they didn't trust Spotify. hmmmm, there is a thought worth considering
We already do, dah. Not at those rates, but yah. Oh and one rate of choose $750 or $0 if you are a billionaire (LOL)
More Epic exercises in futility. Sweeney is soo lacking in Strategic Planning.
He should sell his 50% to Tencent and go try something more his level.
He should sell his 50% to Tencent and go try something more his level.
Remember how many times Sweeney said his fight is not just about Epic but for small developers? Cook should troll him and tweet "I thought you'd be happy"
Didn't epic sue google as well? Google also won't allow epic to run an app store in game via the google play store. And while you can side load fortnite on android, epic is on the record saying they don't like that. They prefer using the built in stores. This is a case where they want all that the built in stores offer while at the same time not wanting to pay for it.
There are some people you could hand a winning lottery ticket to, and the first thing they would do would be whine about all the new taxes they owe.
I know some people who got a bonus for being essential workers during COVID, and this literally happened "I'm just thinking about all the taxes I will owe." Sheesh.
Yea, but before you get too teary-eyed about how benevolent Apple is, think on, until today, they were taking $300K in every $M!
$150K...a bargain??? Compared to every other Apple “bargain“(an oxymoron if there ever was one) even that’s a stretch. Like Epic said, Apple makes more money from gaming than anyone else without ever making a game!!
