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Apple Raises Product and Developer Program Prices in Some Countries
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You're absolutely right, which is why the Developer system works exactly this way right now.
If you just want to play around in the SDK, test that app in the iOS simulator, download and use xcode from the App Store.
If you want to deploy apps to multiple devices, get access to pre-release version SDKs or publish an app on the App Store, you buy the Developer account.
There's nothing stopping you from learning Objective-C and xcode using the App Store version for free. If you want to go further, you can get the Developer account, which has a ton of other benefits such as documentation and direct support.
A few weeks ago, Apple informed European customers (by email) that starting January 1st, 2015, App Store and iTunes Store prices would be adjusted to include local VAT.
Items purchased in 2014 and earlier were taxed with a lower VAT (like Luxembourg or Ireland), and that was legal at the time (i.e. it was legal to purchase goods or services from a E.U. Country with lower VAT, no further payment required).
2015 got us that gift, and it does not apply to Apple only, Amazon already alerted customers of a similar policy variation.
Items purchased in 2014 and earlier were taxed with a lower VAT (like Luxembourg or Ireland), and that was legal at the time (i.e. it was legal to purchase goods or services from a E.U. Country with lower VAT, no further payment required).
2015 got us that gift, and it does not apply to Apple only, Amazon already alerted customers of a similar policy variation.
I used to defend Apple and to recommend it to others when their star product was the Mac, because it was a very high quality product for creative people. Now Apple is just a mobile-tainment company that uses vintage strategies from Microsoft to fight the competition.
It's hard to feel affection for Apple, for the same reason it's hard to feel so for Google, Samsung and Microsoft. There's currently no difference anymore, they're all the same nowadays.
Regarding Apple EU prices, this is no surprise. Apple always does a 1:1 currency conversion: If a Mac costs $1000, the EU price is 1000€. So, if the developer program fee is $99, it translates to 99€. They always do it that way.
I cannot believe NeXTStep has "evolved" into iOS. It's far more dramatic than Linux "evolving" into Android.
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Yeah you're right, I've become so used to paying that I didn't even remember it was free to develop
However there are some features like the In-App Purchases that you cannot use if you're not an official dev.As for me, the first $100 I got, I was 17 and it's cause I found a job. Back when I was young I proposed a bunch of things I could do in the house for money, and my parents were like "well just do it, and we'll see if you deserve anything". That promise turned me off completely.
I'm only 26 now, but kids these days... they have an iPhone and everything. Times have changed.
You know, there was a time when the Apple developer program membership cost $500 or $3,500 per year. And that didn't include the development environment. Now the developer tools are free. People need a longer sense of history and a little less sense of entitlement.
As well, the annual developer membership includes two technical support incidents--code-level support for Apple frameworks, APIs, and tools. Sold seperately, these support incidents cost $50 each, so there's your $100. But consider the cost of the highly-trained staff to support this. If a developer submits a single incident, Apple is most likely taking a loss. Apple DTS is an amazing resource.
As for the whole "Apple has billions in the bank" thinking, should I pay less for a car than you, because I have less money in the bank? How much money Apple does or does not have is immaterial to the value of a product.
As well, the annual developer membership includes two technical support incidents--code-level support for Apple frameworks, APIs, and tools. Sold seperately, these support incidents cost $50 each, so there's your $100. But consider the cost of the highly-trained staff to support this. If a developer submits a single incident, Apple is most likely taking a loss. Apple DTS is an amazing resource.
As for the whole "Apple has billions in the bank" thinking, should I pay less for a car than you, because I have less money in the bank? How much money Apple does or does not have is immaterial to the value of a product.
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It's not really a question of entitlement. It's a question of good business sense. If you want to attract people to your platform it makes sense to make it free to play around with. In fact, lots of software companies simply give away free licenses to students for precisely that reason.
By requiring a $100 subscription fee for something as simple as putting a Hello, World application on your iDevice you turn future developers towards other platforms.
Apple of course have every right to do that. It just doesn't seem very smart.
The IDE is free. There is iOS Simulator, also for free. Entry fee guarantees that App Store is not full of poor quality apps.
Apple could of course refuse apps that are too close to "Hello world" (and it does), but this ways is easier and better.
Apple also gives free licences: if you enroll in iOS programming course at the university, it is possible to get a free account if the university has prearranged it with Apple.
Still having to pay for testing soft on the device is debatable.
#2 is it. Apple has already lost an entire generation of brilliant young programmers to Android and it's starting to show. All the brilliant new stuff hits Android first now. Not to mention the brilliance in the developing world that has to go to Android because their currency is comparatively worthless. Apple is becoming every day more the platform for rich old people, by rich old people.
Free as in "included in the hardware price".
I agree, which is why few argue that deploying to the App Store should be free.
Only if the university teach specific iOS courses. Most universities don't.
What would be the harm in letting me deploy software I've made myself on my own device?
Exactly. If that was possible to do for free, many people would stop complaining. While keeping the fee to access the store to prevent rubbish from being published. As previous posts said.
Oh, my, god! "Brilliant programmers". You must think programming is some kind of hard heroic feat... That the genius is done at the programmer level... IT IS NOT.
Learned C, Pascal, Assembly, Fortran, Lisp, (k,c)sh in 1983-1986 and since, most current languages, IDE and platforms, and though I've moved to systems architecture more than a decade ago, I still match my current "hero programmer" posse (that's how I call them ;-).
You don't need brilliant programmers at all to develop 99.5% of software on whatever platform. Most of the genius I is in the back-end of systems (that's where Apple seems to be having the most difficulties), away from the crowds and even recognition... Probably my current bias
. The ones that need to be brilliant are those that actually find the idea for the software/system/product/design/untapped needs and how all those things fit together and then can be marketed. Those people rare people are randomly sprinkled throughout the industry; probably one in a few thousand people are like that. I aspire to be like that, but I am obviously not, at least not yet, even at my "venerable" age (venerable for this industry...).
So, I'm not buying the heroic genius Android programmer spiel (cause it makes no difference in the end), the only heroic thing is the massive amount of effort it takes to release a software that works decently on all Android platforms and actually makes money from them. Making money on IOS is also quite hard; but at least you have a small chance that's a bit north of zero ;-).
Android cost is $25 to get into the app store and it is a one time fee life time.
I have one on my personal account I got in college. Never submitted anything but still have it.
The issue I have with apples is the 99 a year just to be able to run it on your device.
Other dev programs are free. Microsoft has offered it stuff for free for years. And you could develop multiple items and create installers, release program for free for years.
Apple is the one that cost money. Yeah 99 my not seem like much for professional work but to have it for some projects and just for fun stuff it is expensive.
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Being talented is only one part. The other part is advertising. If you do not have a large following you will not noticed among all the crap in the store. Let's face it 99% of the apps in the app store are crap and that is being nice as a vast majority of those crap would be an improvement.
That or you have a very strong nitch product. Trying getting that noticed.
It is not that. Plus as I said in another post a lot of apps might just be a side project out side their normal day job.
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Quote of truth right here. It is sad how little people understand about development. Things that get me exited and jumping for joy a user and a lot of other people would think oh that is easy. The clean up part is easy. The part that makes that entire system work not so much.Oh, my, god! "Brilliant programmers". You must think programming is some kind of hard heroic feat... That the genius is done at the programmer level... IT IS NOT.
Learned C, Pascal, Assembly, Fortran, Lisp, (k,c)sh in 1983-1986 and since, most current languages, IDE and platforms, and though I've moved to systems architecture more than a decade ago, I still match my current "hero programmer" posse (that's how I call them ;-).
You don't need brilliant programmers at all to develop 99.5% of software on whatever platform. Most of the genius I is in the back-end of systems (that's where Apple seems to be having the most difficulties), away from the crowds and even recognition... Probably my current bias
The ones that need to be brilliant are those that actually find the idea for the software/system/product/design/untapped needs and how all those things fit together and then can be marketed. Those people rare people are randomly sprinkled throughout the industry; probably one in a few thousand people are like that. I aspire to be like that, but I am obviously not, at least not yet, even at my "venerable" age (venerable for this industry...).
So, I'm not buying the heroic genius Android programmer spiel (cause it makes no difference in the end), the only heroic thing is the massive amount of effort it takes to release a software that works decently on all Android platforms and actually makes money from them. Making money on IOS is also quite hard; but at least you have a small chance that's a bit north of zero ;-).
They do, but you don't take in account the cost for them to host the app, the free apps, cost to maintain there servers (I run an IT company, and trust me, it get's expensive for a company their size, even if they do it internally).
As someone else mentioned, Apple also does Quality & Price over Quantity. This is the standard business triangle (google it
). Although hard to see for digital services, it is still there. Would you rather your app be able to be downloaded a 1,000,000 times? Or 5 before their server crashed? I may be small, but I pay my $99 + tax because I know it's fatting someones check and my next iPhone and MacBook Pro will be nice. Besides, if you make a good app... shouldn't you have enough to pay it anyways?
Oh, my, god! "Brilliant programmers". You must think programming is some kind of hard heroic feat... That the genius is done at the programmer level... IT IS NOT.
Learned C, Pascal, Assembly, Fortran, Lisp, (k,c)sh in 1983-1986 and since, most current languages, IDE and platforms, and though I've moved to systems architecture more than a decade ago, I still match my current "hero programmer" posse (that's how I call them ;-).
You don't need brilliant programmers at all to develop 99.5% of software on whatever platform. Most of the genius I is in the back-end of systems (that's where Apple seems to be having the most difficulties), away from the crowds and even recognition... Probably my current bias
Learning languages does not make a 'brilliant' programmer. Learning the APIs and design patterns in and out is what makes the programmer. I can teach someone the Java syntax in a week, but they'll get lost when they try to develop their first program.
Senior developers can create an elegant app in a day where a junior programmer would take a month to develop the same app, but it would also be a maintenance nightmare. This is where the brilliance, or worth of a programmer comes from.
No it's worth the $99 per year. The support, actually call center, and people reviewing/testing your app is well worth the $99. If you want untested, no call center (email only) and pretty much a free for all... check out the other platforms.
I personally loved that I was able to call Apple Dev line when I had a submission issue will a client. Got someone on the phone right away. Honestly $99 is like $9 considering the investment that is required to dev on iOS (Mac, iOS device, graphics, SDK, hosting services, etc.) that's if you're a serious dev and not just wanting access just to download iOS betas
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I personally don't think it's stupid. How are they suppose to prevent people from taking advantage of that. If I was able to create an app and put it on my device then what's stopping me from putting that App online putting some malware in it and having hundreds of thousands of people downloading it? The provisioning is there for a reason, like it or not. It's helping to protect us... If you know of another protection/work around please sure.
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Yes they can purchase a Mac? tell me what's wrong with that? they can always develop on android for free, no one is forcing them to dev on iOS. It comes with a cost dev'ing on iOS
Yes, but once you're a senior in developing in any modern language, come on, moving to another one is a breeze. The people I deal with have 5-25 years of experience with engineering, science or computer science degrees. Even juniors from top schools are brighter than what you're describing; they have too, those engineering degrees are very demanding. I've had some who can run around guys with 10 years of experience.
BTW, a lot of people who call themselves programmers truly shouldn't. Their degrees and skills are shoddy. They give the whole word a very bad reputation...
Anyway, in my opinion, the average software development is often just well paid drudgery, very far from the edge of novelty or even challenge. That's why I went towards a CTO/architect role in more "out there" projects with a good mix or software AND hardware in my old age (born mid 1960s ;-). "Old" people get bored and must be distracted by new shiny things ;-).
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