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Apple Shares Praise From Developers Happy With 15% App Store Fee Cut

sw1tcher said:
Earn less than $1,000,000.00? Pay 15 percent commission.

Earn $1,000,000.00 or $1,000,000.01? Pay 30 percent commission.


Tim Cook was lying to Congress when he told Representative Henry Johnson, "We treat every developer the same."

This is clearly not the case when developers are paying different commission rates.
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You pay per transaction, you won't get back billed for all your previous transactions if you go over a million, you just start paying 30% from then on, until the next year starts, then you're back to 15%.

Also "We treat every developer the same" is not the same as "We will treat every developer the same"
 
you can't possibly think $1 million in app sales makes you a big corporate app company right? i admittedly don't understand the economics of most app developers but i can't see too many apps only bringing in $1 million in annual sales supporting more than 5 employees at the absolute max once you also consider the taxes involved. i'm pretty sure a ton of small developers are still beating that threshold easily and it's not just the large corporations paying 30%.
 
sw1tcher said:
Are you saying if a developer earns, for example, $1,000,001.00, the first $1 million is charged a rate of 15 percent, and then the $1.00 is charged a 30 percent rate?

Because that's not how the press releases was written:



If that's what Apple means, it's poorly written. And other news outlets reporting on it are getting it wrong too such as https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/18...s-program-commission-cut-15-percent-reduction

Apple did spell out some of the program’s rules today. The company says it will look at developer proceeds for the year of 2020 to determine eligibility starting in January. New developers can also qualify right away. For those app makers that exceed the $1 million threshold at any point in 2021, they will automatically be removed from the program and subject to the standard 30 percent cut

Note the part about being removed from the 15 percent commission program if developers exceed the $1 million threshold.

Perhaps it's you who doesn't understand what the hell you're talking about?
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You don't ever have to pay apple anything other that the initial $100 to get into the Developer Program. You don't pay Apple 15%, you just get paid from Apple 85%. Then if you go over a million, then you only get paid 70%. No where in the articles you mentioned did it say anything about reimbursing Apple after you get removed from the program.
 
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Hey I'm mentioned! Like legitimately, the 15% increase will make a massive difference in my life and in being able to do more things, so I really do appreciate that. It makes me excited for my other indie friends too who haven't been able to go full-time yet, who might now be able to, or at least be able to sooner.

(Also it's really cool to be in a press release haha)
 
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How is revenue calculated? if the app has a subscription or is it merchant apps that provide service like Uber?

If they gross over $1 million, they pay 30% to apple? that’s nuts!
 
SR 7 said:
How is revenue calculated? if the app has a subscription or is it merchant apps that provide service like Uber?

If they gross over $1 million, they pay 30% to apple? that’s nuts!
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They only pay 30% of sales made after $1 million, it's not like tax were you figure out what you owe at the end of the year. Apple takes their cut before giving it to you.
 
C’mon, if a company does less than a million a year it still does not have business anywhere in the modern world ... much less in the US. ... Humm does this mean that 96% of developers on the App Store don’t really a business? I guess the billions come mostly from 4% of devs after crossing the chasm all alone paying to have access to potential customer that 95% are on still. I wonder how much is actually Apple adding value ... its a customer access tax people. Customer access is the product through the fence is the product nothing else.
 
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Too little, too late. Also doesn't address the disparity in treatment of small developers compared to larger companies. In fact, the reduced rate now can act as justification for treating "small potatoes" like crap as they have always done.
You only pay 15% so you don't deserve the same treatment as a company paying 30%.
 
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sw1tcher said:
Earn less than $1,000,000.00? Pay 15 percent commission.

Earn $1,000,000.00 or $1,000,000.01? Pay 30 percent commission.


Tim Cook was lying to Congress when he told Representative Henry Johnson, "We treat every developer the same."

This is clearly not the case when developers are paying different commission rates.
Click to expand...
Wait till you hear about income tax.
 
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sw1tcher said:
Are you saying if a developer earns, for example, $1,000,001.00, the first $1 million is charged a rate of 15 percent, and then the $1.00 is charged a 30 percent rate?

Because that's not how the press releases was written:



If that's what Apple means, it's poorly written. And other news outlets reporting on it are getting it wrong too such as https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/18...s-program-commission-cut-15-percent-reduction

Apple did spell out some of the program’s rules today. The company says it will look at developer proceeds for the year of 2020 to determine eligibility starting in January. New developers can also qualify right away. For those app makers that exceed the $1 million threshold at any point in 2021, they will automatically be removed from the program and subject to the standard 30 percent cut

Note the part about being removed from the 15 percent commission program if developers exceed the $1 million threshold.

Perhaps it's you who doesn't understand what the hell you're talking about?
Click to expand...

As a developer, I know exactly what I'm talking about. I don't post about things I don't know anything about.

"the standard commission rate will apply for the remainder of the year."

The rate is 15%. As soon as you surpass 1 million, the rate changes to 30% for the rest of the years earnings. That's what they mean by "removed from the program". If earnings drop below 1 million again, you can re-apply for the program the next year.

Look, not knowing about something is fine. People like me are more than willing to fill in the details, but when you make a belligerent post about something you clearly misunderstand, you're going to get blowback.
 
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pdoobs said:
you can't possibly think $1 million in app sales makes you a big corporate app company right? i admittedly don't understand the economics of most app developers but i can't see too many apps only bringing in $1 million in annual sales supporting more than 5 employees at the absolute max once you also consider the taxes involved. i'm pretty sure a ton of small developers are still beating that threshold easily and it's not just the large corporations paying 30%.
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98% of devs can benefit from this. $1m is quite a milestone and when you hit it you are going to pass it.
 
warp9 said:
For Pete's sake, stop making ignorant posts if you don't know what the hell you're talking about. The 30% only applies to earnings beyond 1 million.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/11/apple-announces-app-store-small-business-program/
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Wrong !

If you pass it one year, the subsequent Year Everything Gets Tax'd @ 30% by Apple, starting from the very first sale that year !

Apple didn't completely think thru ALL the issues before announcing it.

The details will be Released on OR about Dec 13th, if memory serves me.
 
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This is a great move but Apple did this for one specific reason.

There is a very good case to be made that Apple is acting in an anticompetitive way by not allowing third party app stores on their platform and probably fear that big tech regulation could force them to open up IOS to third party App stores so this is them trying to to show that they are reasonable and not anticompetitive by offering a lower rate.

I don't think they did this out of the kindness for small developers but more fear of big tech regulation and being forced to allow Third party app stores which would circumvent their App Store fee in general if they were forced to open IOS up to other App stores.
 
"On January 1, 2021, all developers who earn less than $1 million from the App Store will pay a 15 percent commission to Apple instead of the standard 30 percent"

this is a very curious move- when Apple was asked in open court they say the 30% fee was a) necessary to run the store and b) the fee is what everyone else is changing - now Apple seems ok going down to 15% - I am sure Epic its going back to court and say why I am not getting that fee? what work is Apple is doing differently that cost more to them?
 
szw-mapple fan said:
That's... the whole point. It's about getting developer goodwill at the expense of a minor hit on Apple's profits. Nobody promised better prices.
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But developers should pass the savings onto the consumer. Otherwise people here backing up developers about Apple's percentage is stupid silly and consumers backing developers like this are just saying, "We're here to stand up for developers against the evil giant called Apple".

You want Apple to take care of developers, but as a consumer you should expect the same from developers to the consumers. If not you're just helping developers pad their pockets.
 
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sw1tcher said:
Epic would need to raise their rate if they were to match Apple's 15 percent rate. Epic only charges 12 percent.

From their FAQ:
www.epicgames.com

Publish Apps, Games and Software on the Epic Games Store.

Learn how to publish apps, games and software on the Epic Games Store to access over 100M players on PC and Mac.
www.epicgames.com www.epicgames.com

What’s the catch? Is this 88% revenue share a special introductory rate?

There is no catch; the 88% share to the developer is the permanent rate. Epic’s 12% share covers the operating costs of the store and makes us a profit.
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What made you such a fanboy for Epic? They literally breached their contract with Apple after years of being fine with it. Their argument was that the 30% was hurting the little guy. Now it’s not.
 
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gaximus said:
They only pay 30% of sales made after $1 million, it's not like tax were you figure out what you owe at the end of the year. Apple takes their cut before giving it to you.
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so does Uber/Postmates etc pay 30% of each delivery to Apple?
 
I’ve been a solo iOS dev for about 7 years and while this woulda been nice when I was actually making good money on the App Store I’m still happy to see it.

Unfortunately I do mostly sports app so I was destroyed by Covid so 15% of close to nothing won’t help much this year but hopefully it does in the future.

I assume the app market has become a place where the top 1% make about 90% of the store rev so I doubt apple will see much if any lost rev.
 
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