Do you think 30% is too much as prices go up?

[Piggie]

The amount Apple take from devs for hosting their programs on the App store.

As we know it's 30%.

Now, this is only a personal feeling and I'm sure many will disagree, but when it was thought up, with iPhone apps, priced at 99c or a couple of dollars, I guess, what with the costs of running the system, 30% seemed an amount that people were willing to accept.

Myself, I can go along with that, it costs Apple money to run things, and a few cents from a cheap app seems not too much to ask.

But this was dreamed up and calculated, as I say, back when it was just cheap apps.

What does the future mean for this percentage and devs wanting to use the app store for much more expensive software?

I suppose, I'm feeling a sliding percentage would be a more acceptable way of charging a dev, so that the higher the software price the less percent Apple take, after all, there no reason why hosting a $99 app costs apple more than hosting a 99c app.

To take $30 from a $99 app seems a bit greedy does it not?

Or perhaps I'm wrong and they do slide the scale for more expensive apps?

What do you think?

 

[blackberrypilot]

If the dev doesn't like it he can pass it on to the consumer by upping the price. I think they have done that already, which is why you pay $99 for an app.

 

[Piggie]

If the dev doesn't like it he can pass it on to the consumer by upping the price. I think they have done that already, which is why you pay $99 for an app.

Indeed, I'm just wondering if perhaps it would be wise of Apple, now they are no longer selling only 99c type apps, to rethink this amount, as I say, perhaps put in place a sliding scale so the percentage goes down as the price goes up, so they still get more, but the dev does not get put off, or hikes the price.

This, to me anyway, would seem a more sensible business model for a successful long term app store for the future as apps grow in complexity and prices need to rise to cover the cost of their creation.

I believe other things in business work on sliding scales such as this.

 

[rdowns]

Apple is doing quite a bit more than hosting apps. First, they created a market that is available to every user of Snow Leopard. That is far more people than most developers can ever hope to attract to their own web site. Presumably, they can make up lower selling prices with more volume.

Developers no longer need to buy keywords from Google. They are expensive and very necessary if you want to drive qualified traffic to your site.

Apple hosts the app, handle credit cards and billing and installation. They even stick your app's icon on the dock. Developers have no bandwidth fees.

I wonder if a developers costs pre Mac App Store were more or less than 30% of sales.

 

[Piggie]

Apple is doing quite a bit more than hosting apps. First, they created a market that is available to every user of Snow Leopard. That is far more people than most developers can ever hope to attract to their own web site. Presumably, they can make up lower selling prices with more volume.

Developers no longer need to buy keywords from Google. They are expensive and very necessary if you want to drive qualified traffic to your site.

Apple hosts the app, handle credit cards and billing and installation. They even stick your app's icon on the dock. Developers have no bandwidth fees.

I wonder if a developers costs pre Mac App Store were more or less than 30% of sales.

Most of your point probably are valid for small scale or private debs. I guess I'm thinking more about large titles for utilities of games from major companies. Perhaps apple would consider individual agreements with them?

I would have thought it would benefit Apple to get the more major apps onto their stores in time and also benefit the consumers to be able to have the one place to get their software from.

If the price is restrictive I don't see anyone benefiting really

 

[rdowns]

Most of your point probably are valid for small scale or private debs. I guess I'm thinking more about large titles for utilities of games from major companies. Perhaps apple would consider individual agreements with them?

I would have thought it would benefit Apple to get the more major apps onto their stores in time and also benefit the consumers to be able to have the one place to get their software from.

If the price is restrictive I don't see anyone benefiting really

Larger companies (Microsoft, Adobe as examples) don't need Apple to make their markets for them. They therefore won't sell their wares in the MAS unless they think Apple brings a larger market.

 

[ditzy]

Most of your point probably are valid for small scale or private debs. I guess I'm thinking more about large titles for utilities of games from major companies. Perhaps apple would consider individual agreements with them?

I would have thought it would benefit Apple to get the more major apps onto their stores in time and also benefit the consumers to be able to have the one place to get their software from.

If the price is restrictive I don't see anyone benefiting really

Personally I would find it annoying if I were a small developer having to pay 30% if large developers got to pay a smaller percentage. I don't see how that is fair.
Plus I think there are reasons why some developers don't develop for iOS, but I very rarely hear that the main reason that they didn't was because of the 30%.

 

[lPHONE]

I'll spare you all my opinion. The only thing I'm going to say is that this is an age old question. From bank fees to taxes, you will always have people in opposition.

I sell a lot of stuff on eBay. Sure, PayPal fees are high, but I don't have a merchant account and it allows me to accept payments.

Look at it from a different angle: Where would you sell your Apps without App Store? On Google? C'mon, those guys are cheap bastards and want everything for free.

If it's that big of a deal, can't you adjust your prices accordingly? I think the growing popularity of App Store would would balance out any disposition from loss of customers due to price increases, don't you? Raise prices and lose a few customers, but get them back because App Store is growing exponentially.

 

[lPHONE]

This, to me anyway, would seem a more sensible business model for a successful long term app store for the future as apps grow in complexity and prices need to rise to cover the cost of their creation.

I believe other things in business work on sliding scales such as this.

Sort of, but they're usually based on sales. Most credit card processors are around 3%, but if you sell more than $3k in one month- next month your fees drop to 2.8%. The next break is at $10,000, then 100,000.

It doesn't mean that Apple has to be this way, BUT what could Apple possibly gain from lowering their fees? They have serious pressure from shareholders. The only way Apple is going to lower their prices is if:

1. Competitors (like Google) can lock Apple in a bidding war and produce sales.
   OR
2. Devs orchestrate a massive strike.

 

[Meever]

The app store is for exactly that. Apps. You're not going to be seeing any full blown Adobe or Microsoft products on there. Apple has iwork and ilife on there since it's first party, but big companies can just work out distribution on their own already.

Doubt we're going to see any app worth more than 40-50 dollars, outside of games of course.

 

[Piggie]

The app store is for exactly that. Apps. You're not going to be seeing any full blown Adobe or Microsoft products on there. Apple has iwork and ilife on there since it's first party, but big companies can just work out distribution on their own already.

Doubt we're going to see any app worth more than 40-50 dollars, outside of games of course.

Funnily enough, you have just hit the nail on the head here

Is this what we/you/Apple want to happen?

Well the app store is for all the low end stuff, but if you want the really good programs then you have to hunt around the internet.

I would of thought it would benefit everyone (Mac users) if over time the App store was "The Place" to get all your Mac software from.

As you say, probably correctly, more expensive apps, from larger companies won't want to use the App store, due to the 30%

Who does that benefit? It does not benefit Apple, it does not benefit the consumer and it does not benefit the software companies.

Apple misses out on the big titles and some more revenue.
Consumer misses out as they have to hunt around, or may not know about these other packages
Software companies miss out as they may get more people seeing their products.

That's why I wondered if, everyone would benefit from some sliding scale.

You know, and I'm making these numbers up here:

Up to $9.99 = 30%
$10.00 to $19.99 = 25%
$20.00 to $49.99 = 20%
$50.00 to $99.99 = 10%
Over $100 = 5%

So then you may get the AutoCad, Photoshop, Maya, 3D Studio Max etc etc on the store also.

It's just an idea

 

[vastoholic]

Autodesk Sketchbook Pro 2011 is in the app store. I would hardly call it a worthless program. Did they need it to be in there? No, their website and name is well known. But they already made the iPad version so maybe they felt it was expected of them to sell the full desktop version through apple as well.

 

[gnasher729]

The amount Apple take from devs for hosting their programs on the App store.

As we know it's 30%.

Are you a software developer, selling software? If you are, can you tell me how you would sell software and get more than 70% of the end user price out of it, after you subtract all the cost that you have in selling? I'd love to hear it.

 

[Piggie]

Are you a software developer, selling software? If you are, can you tell me how you would sell software and get more than 70% of the end user price out of it, after you subtract all the cost that you have in selling? I'd love to hear it.

No I'm not. I just have trouble believing Adobe are going to give Apple over $1000 a copy so they can sell a program on their store.

 

[rdowns]

No I'm not. I just have trouble believing Adobe are going to give Apple over $1000 a copy so they can sell a program on their store.

As you were told earlier, it's not likely as they don't need Apple to create a market for their software. Same for all the large developers. Get over this already.