Apple did it on their own free will. “Forced” would be if a judge ordered them to. Not even the court of public opinion pushed for it.
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Apple Drops App Store Fees to 15% for All Developers Making Under $1 Million From App Store
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His point is when your annual sales are right near $1 million a year. That's the specific scenario he was talking about. Obviously if you're making $500K a month, then you aren't going to suppress sales to stay under the $1million.
Furthermore, as many here have explained, the FIRST $1million EVERYONE earns is taxed at the 15-percent. It's only people who make more than that, they get charged the 30-percent for any income above $1million. I would make no sense if it worked differently than that.
I don't know whether you like this move or not. Steve Jobs was very much a part of the 30% Apple cut on app store revenue for developers - which might have been defensible for Apple too at the time.
you're mincing words. His point is, had all the lawsuits and monopoly investigations in various countries not been happening - it's fairly obvious Apple would not be doing this.
They pay 15% for the first £1m then they pay 30% after that. If they don't keep earning over $1m then it goes back to 15%. Usually you keep earning more money so once you are paying 30% you are earning more than someone earning $1m.. Apple don't retroactively charge you for the rest and if your 2nd year sales are down below $1m you are doing something very wrong.
EPIC requested Apple to make things more reasonable for the developer community as a whole. Guess what? Apple decided to ignore the advice and stagnated the app store policy for over a decade that resulted in an antitrust lawsuit and DOJ is going to deliver a severe penalty when Apple is found guilty.
Pretty sure this is why Apple merged the iTunes Gift Cards and the Apple Store Gift Cards. No longer any discounts on them so Apple can now afford to lower commissions. When they charged 30% commission, they could afford to offer cards at 15-20% off frequently. Now all sales effectively occur at full price.
Why does the headline read like a reduced sentence? This still imposes a sovereign tax on earnings. The sovereignty issue needs to be adjudicated. Is the AppStore a retail outlet or a Sovereign enitity?
Apple today announced the launch of a new App Store Small Business Program that will see the Cupertino company lowering its App Store fees for small business owners and independent developers. Starting on January 1, 2021, all developers who earn less than $1 million from the App Store will pay 15 percent in commission to Apple, down from the standard 30 percent.
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Epic will now lose the moral support of all those little devs, to be sure -- let's be fair; they weren't receiving anything else from them, after all -- but technically, it won't change the lawsuit in any meaningful way. IANAL, but in my observations, lawsuits are generally based upon past business practices; thus, changing the business practices in the middle of the lawsuit does not directly benefit Apple in this lawsuit. However, having said that...
I agree with you in part. It's not a "forced" action, per se -- but it is clearly a reaction specifically caused by Epic's lawsuit. Rather, it kind'a makes it look like Apple is agreeing in part to the complaints lodged against them, while very carefully crafting a new policy which creates goodwill while minimizing their own financial losses, and also ensures that Epic does not receive any of the benefits of the change.
You could argue that with this change, Epic could win the moral battle while potentially still losing the financial battle. Judge Rogers has made statements which seem to predispose her to ruling substantially against Epic, based in part upon their having flagrantly broken their contract with Apple in an undisguised premeditated move specifically to gain standing to file a lawsuit; this change to Apple's business practice may help them to come out of the courtroom largely unscathed, as it can be referenced by Apple as a good faith attempt to address the larger issue brought forth by Epic, without going to so far as to capitulate to Epic's overreaching demand for all of the profits.
This was a brilliant tactical move by Apple.
No, epic didn’t (and very likely won’t) get what they wanted. Still, if it weren’t for all the noise epic has made, small (and not so small, 1 million bucks a year is a lot of money) developers can have a fairer deal.
So, as much as I dislike epic and their child crying for attention attitude, this is in part thanks to them.
I know what his point was, didn’t you read my second paragraph?
But you need to read the article. Only those who earn under $1,000,000 in 2020 qualify to start 2021 at the 15% rate. Everyone who makes over that threshold will pay 30% on every dollar next year. They don’t get the 15% rate for any of their revenue. And they never will, unless they close out a year with earnings under $1,000,000.
Only those that cross the threshold during 2021 will get the two step schedule, i.e. 15% until they earn $1,000,000 net then 30% from there forward. Those devs then start 2022 at 30%, though if they fall back under the $1,000,000 payout threshold they can start 2023 back at 15%.
EPIC wants their game store that costs devs way more than 30%, paying taxes isn't free. Apple made it better for small developers, the people that keep supporting Apple and keep making the AppStore a great place. Everyone gets the same treatment instead of startups paying more and billion dollar companies paying less like EPIC wanted.
Checkmated Epic and did something awesome (as one of the top-voted comments says…epic?) at the same time. Not one red cent of change for Epic and companies like them, yet a world of change for the business they kept saying they were supposedly fighting for. (Read: given that they skirted around the App Store rules so egregiously, I really think that’s a bunch of BS on their part.)
This would make sense and would align closer with how actual income tax brackets work in the US. Everything happens in steps, and this is a super hope-giving step in the right direction!
This would make sense and would align closer with how actual income tax brackets work in the US. Everything happens in steps, and this is a super hope-giving step in the right direction!
And you still have a small percentage of apps subsidizing all the ‘free’ apps in the store.
You don't see the point that Apple is bullying the developer who earn more in sales revenue due to a greater amount of hard work and creativity went into the application by increasing the fees and imposed restrictions such as the third-party payment system.
Words have meaning. Either apple was, or was not, forced to do this.
There’s nothing to debate. Facts aren’t debatable.
Just rememebr, when a company says "it's not about the money," it is. I would expect them to now say "See, Apple can survive on 15% so we deserve millions more from them..."
I don’t know about that. Apple won’t give up a cent unless they really need to, like every other for profit company around the world.
So rest assured it was in apple’s best interest. The scrutiny the big tech companies are going through with the allegations of monopoly may have something to do with it.
We’ll see if google follows apple’s lead on this one.