Apple Begins Paying Developers After Reaching $100 Million App Store Settlement

[Devyn89]

If you don’t trust your employees not to steal then why did you hire them in the first place? I’d be insulted if my employer demanded to do a bag check before I was allowed to leave work. For a company that claims to value privacy that’s definitely an invasion of privacy.

 

[ScottishDuck]

And for this, combatting app, account and credit card fraud, privacy violations, security risks, spam, etc.

App Store stopped nearly $1.5 billion in fraudulent transactions in 2021

App Store prevented over 1.6 million risky and untrustworthy apps and app updates from defrauding users throughout the year.

www.apple.com

Have you actually… used the App Store

 

[msackey]

30% for building, hosting, and maintaining the App Store... which actually is pretty friendly for developers.

30% for that alone? Seems really high and greedy. Apple is not a cash-strapped company. They benefit by having developers use their App Store through a non-contentious relationship. They can do that by reducing their requirement of commission.

 

[I7guy]

Are you really defending a trillion dollar company that STOLE money from ordinary citizens?

Stole money?

And then denied denied denied and had to be sued and still won’t admit guilt. What the hell?

Because they didn’t steal anything?

 

[WestonHarvey1]

They probably spent it on Macs and iPhones.

 

[TimB21]

If you don’t trust your employees not to steal then why did you hire them in the first place? I’d be insulted if my employer demanded to do a bag check before I was allowed to leave work. For a company that claims to value privacy that’s definitely an invasion of privacy.

I'm generally happy with Apple, they make products people love and are willing to pay for. However, as an ex-Apple Store employee, the bag-check always felt cheap to me. Lots of other ways to steal other than putting things in your bag or pockets if you wanted to, I didn't. This was kinda petty.

 

[omihek]

I hate greed.

Me too. Those developers all knew going in that Apple took a 30% cut, and yet they signed the developer contract anyway. Then, after the fact, they decided 30% was too much and decided to sue Apple for honoring the terms of the contract that these greedy developers willingly signed.

 

[nottooshabby]

What! I just got $4000. I was expect $1000!

 

[ethanwa79]

Here's what devs can expect for payment amounts:

https://hbsslaw.com/sites/default/files/case-downloads/apple-dev/2022-06-08-Estimated-apple-developer-settlement-distributions.pdf

 

[JRaff]

Wow. I had a mildly successful app like 4 years ago. It made me like $1500-$2000. I was expecting $500 ish and just got 2k in my PayPal lol.

 

[CarlJ]

Can you explain to me how Apple stole the money? The seller knew the fee going in. If the software had been sold in retail stores, I could tell you the fee was more than 30%.

Precisely this! Apple said, "Hey folks, for our iPhone, we now have an App Store. Here are the terms. If you want to develop apps for the iPhone, feel free to sign up, agree to all the terms, and do so. These developers all signed on knowing what the terms are. They could have gone and developed for Android or whatever instead. They chose to develop for the iPhone knowing the terms up front. Nothing was stolen from them. If a whole bunch of prominent developers had gotten together up front and refused to develop for the iPhone and made a public protest, they could have perhaps gotten the terms changed a long time ago.

I understand the developers wanting more money, that's natural. But they don't have a case for having been wronged here.

 

[CarlJ]

Apple really looks greedy here. What is it, 30% commission? Holy…! Maybe 5% commission and that’s it. 30% for doing what?

If the developers didn't like the terms, why did they sign up and develop apps for the iPhone? Nobody put a gun to their head to make them sign. And if enough large developers had refused to sign up at the start, Apple would have lowered their prices. What we have now works out to retroactive negotiation.

 

[WilliApple]

The App Store is not a monopoly. That is like saying the Nintendo e shop, Xbox store, and PlayStation store are monopolies.

 

[aardwolf]

I got mine today… Ended up being just over 4x the minimum promised.

 

[firewood]

Are you really defending a trillion dollar company that STOLE money from ordinary citizens?

Count me in as an ordinary developer who was extremely happy to let Apple “steal” money from my app sales. Why? Because I was selling mobile apps before Apple’s iPhone App Store, and I made a ton less net revenue back then.

 

[citysnaps]

Have you actually… used the App Store

Since it was launched years ago. Why do you care?

 

[mikethemartian]

Ironically, the class counsel attorney fees amounted to $26 million, or almost 30%.

Thanks to Apple’s strategy to not reimburse their own employees for that time simply out of maintaing goodwill with them, those attorneys made a killing.

 

[mikethemartian]

Precisely this! Apple said, "Hey folks, for our iPhone, we now have an App Store. Here are the terms. If you want to develop apps for the iPhone, feel free to sign up, agree to all the terms, and do so. These developers all signed on knowing what the terms are. They could have gone and developed for Android or whatever instead. They chose to develop for the iPhone knowing the terms up front. Nothing was stolen from them. If a whole bunch of prominent developers had gotten together up front and refused to develop for the iPhone and made a public protest, they could have perhaps gotten the terms changed a long time ago.

I understand the developers wanting more money, that's natural. But they don't have a case for having been wronged here.

Courts regularly void terms in “contracts of adhesion“. Apple’s attorneys were very well aware of this when they drafted those agreements and since they took their very first business law class in college.

 

[ackmondual]

Apple having to pay another parking ticket.

Sounds about right. One issue with corporate penalties in the US... it's easier (and more profitable) to just break the law, or do something that's otherwise scummy (but still legal), and just pay a small fine later, and be done with it.

 

[Shirasaki]

I still can see people believing Apple can literally do anything and everything they want and draft a contract that demand everything from developer short of their lives while giving little back.

Yes, operating a global App Store market behind the scene is not cheap initially. But we have been with App Store for like what, about 14 years? And apple somehow STILL doesn’t recoup the initial investment And require high commission (“industry standard”) for ongoing cost? Where’s the economy of scale?

Ok, I have absolutely zero knowledge on how Apple operates App Store just Like majority of apple users. But just the idea of people defending apple getting away with anything is disgusting.

 

[TheWatchfulOne]

30% for that alone? Seems really high and greedy. Apple is not a cash-strapped company. They benefit by having developers use their App Store through a non-contentious relationship. They can do that by reducing their requirement of commission.

For that alone? Do you know the cost of such an endeavor?

You have to either rent server space or build your own data centers. I'm guessing Apple does or has done some of each. Amazon web services are expensive.

I know they've built their own data centers. They have to keep those up and running 24/7. That's extremely expensive.

And if as a developer you make less than $1M, they only charge you 15%.

And if you offer your app for free, they eat the cost and don't charge the developer anything.

 

[Shirasaki]

And if as a developer you make less than $1M, they only charge you 15%.

This only happened I think 2 years ago. Back in the early days everyone was 30% regardless Of size and earnings.

 

[Solomani]

Ironically, the class counsel attorney fees amounted to $26 million, or almost 30%.

The Lawyers are the real winners here. Go lawyers!!

 

[svish]

Good to see developers being compensated.

 

[tridley68]

Apple will make it all back they will just charge the developers more to host their apps in the app store and everyone will be happy once more