I have been saying it for years, Apple is quick to fight the FBI, local law enforcement and file appeals to regulators and courts everywhere, but would comply to China on anything quicker than the blink of an eye.
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Apple Accused of Not Doing Enough to Comply With South Korean App Store Law
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I have been saying it for years, Apple is quick to fight the FBI, local law enforcement and file appeals to regulators and courts everywhere, but would comply to China on anything quicker than the blink of an eye.
Really? And how does a software developer get to sell their wares with zero out of pocket costs? Try building your own infrastructure to sell your wares. It will be many times more than the "full price" Apple charges, which is a bargain considering what is gotten in return.
What's fascinating is this type of generalized spin. Apple has to follow the local laws. Additionally, apple should be fighting tooth and nail to protect it's IP.
The MacRumors definition of following the local laws apparently seems to mean roll over for China but screw the consumer and protect it's profits. $$$ -> customers apparently to some.
What innovation have we seen in the last 5 years in the App Store?
1. Subscriptions
2. You can now review Apple’s own apps
3. …
Excellent post. These are all the questions that the politicians and their lemmings don’t want to answer, because they prefer to stew in their own ignorance. It’s easier for them to cry and complain than to offer any sort of meaningful solution.
I personally think the App Store fee structure should be changed to take into account the free [loading] apps that dominate the store.
The global market for mobile app development is $9.4 Trillion so I don't think developers should feel their innovation is being stifled if they have to come off of some of that.
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Correct. If there were to be a lack of innovation at apple, it would have nothing to do with cash.
How much is the developer fee? Does a developer who offers a free app have to pay anything beyond that fee?
$99 per year. No.
Your comment helps support my point. Apple offers an inexpensive access to their App Store. Free or inexpensive or expensive apps can get wide distribution and support for only $99 per year (per developer, not app). If someone needs to make money they can run ads or figure out a way to otherwise make money. A developer could also charge for an app and pay the developer fee + whatever Apple's commissions work out to be (15 - 30%).
Now, if a developer could make a free app but offer a subscription or other IAP with billing going through an external system, Apple doesn't get a cut of that. Maybe that's okay but Apple in that case is providing complete access to infrastructure for only $99 per year. What if that app pulls in $25,000,000 per year for the developer? That would be great but what if managing it, hosting it, etc. costs Apple $50,000 per year (I'm making up numbers of course for this hypothetical situation)? What if it costs Apple $150? What if it costs Apple $50 or $5,000,000?
Apple loses money if the costs of hosting, managing, etc. an app are higher than the developer fee. Maybe that works with their overall business plan but maybe Apple doesn't want to lose money on the App Store.
What's the solution? Increase the developer fee? Increase developer fees only for more popular developers? Increase the cost of other services or products to cover lost revenue in the App Store? Do nothing and take a hit in revenue? What does that do to the investments of shareholders?
Nothing I wrote was in support of Apple's current practices. My comments have been to point out that South Korea's law will most likely result in changes to how the App Store functions. Maybe it will be a net positive for developers. Maybe it won't be. I don't know enough and I don't think anyone knows enough to make that prediction.
It's the only definition that matters IF you have noplace else to go. Apple doesn't "NEED" to sell in any one country.
Usually autocracies makes very specific demands like "Removes these 200 apps by end of business next week" and it comes from a source of authority.
In democracies, the right way to do it is to investigate Apple by the proper authority, issue a fine or what the law prescribes and then let Apple appeal through the court system.
If South Korean authorities (not a law maker) believes Apple has broken the law, they should start this process.
Flappy Bird made a ton of money for a guy in a poor country and we never saw him complain.
Tim Sweeney is a billionaire apparently and he cries like a twitter troll who lost a flame war.
They should obey the law in both places, it's just that in democracies you can fight the government as a company which Apple does sometimes.
I am pretty sure Apple would put up more resistance in China if it was possible. But the Chinese seems to be much more concrete and direct in what they consider illegal. It helps with complying!
Problem is, what they want (per the bit about "excessive fees [hurting] developers") appears to be a law that says, "you can't make lots of money" and/or "developers don't have to pay you as much, because they asked us nicely", but they're not willing to put that down on paper, instead they're writing, "you have to let them pay via other means", and figuring that that means the 15/30% fee will go away, thinking that the 15/30% is merely an outrageous credit card processing fee. It's not, of course, it's fees for everything involved involved in development and maintenance of the store and the APIs and developer tools and such, charged as essentially a percentage of sales (because that's more fair that charging every developer, large and small, something like $10k/yr upfront).
Most politicians wouldn't make good software developers - their logic is too fuzzy, and they don't consider unintended consequences.
It's arrogant for foreign companies to think they have a say with how Apple runs their business. Don't like it? Give up your iPhones.
Personally as a consumer if there was an app I bought and relied on a lot I would prefer most of the revenues go towards the development of new features and bug fixes for the app than to maintaining a general marketplace.
Subscriptions is not innovation. Neither is "in apps purchases", but at least the latter doesn't make me feel like I'm being taken advantage of.
I'm thinking of creating a whole mess of apps for a price of $5, just to bring the subscription industry to its knees. One time fee, no subscriptions.
Don't know if I can do it, but I'm mulling it over!
Setting up a basic website with a purchase button and paypal integration takes a day, maybe, for an experienced developer. A week if you're clueless. It's really really simple. And if you host it on AWS, it's pennies per month, and paypal fees are 3.49% + 49¢ per transaction, or 2.89% if you're "special".
On a 99 cent app, that's 52¢ or 52%, and Apple is absolutely the bargain. But on anything that costs more, Apple starts becoming incredibly expensive. e.g., a $10 app costs the developer just $83 cents in fees.
Apple's pricing is nowhere near a bargain. They're exorbitant, outrageous, and the only reason Apple gets away with it is because they have a monopoly on selling on iOS.
I don't buy pennies per month on AWS. Sure if you're on the free tier for one year and don't do any useful work. And those who want to pay by credit card? I don't use paypal, for example...for people like me you need a 3rd party processor unless you want to apply to setup a merchant account with one of the companies. The less one has to do the more expensive the hosting becomes and Apples' 15%-30% looks like a bargain. Of course, companies like Epic, would like to ditch apple. Independent developers have a better use case than larger developers.
Apple is more than welcome to pull out of the South Korean market if they'd like to give up those sales.
Sure, though I don't know how popular iPhones will be in South Korea once Apple eliminates the App Store and third-party apps. My guess is not very.