I’m just pointing out the difference between a price drop and a subsidy. the price of the iPhone went up, but was subsidized by the carriers for a lower upfront cost.
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Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney Calls Apple's App Store a 'Disservice to Developers'
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12% is a ripoff if its only for credit card fees.
Apples only charges 15% for devs like me that make less than a million a year.
In return it includes credit card fees, hosting, support, marketing, distribution bandwidth, app review , developer services and dozens of localized stores all over the world.
Apple originally set the 30% to cover costs for 99 cent purchases which cost most of that in credit card fees. I think they have declined to about 12 cents on a 99 cent purchase now.
But the 30% level worked well overall given that most apps are free, and pay apple nothing. Free apps can be expensive, Spotify requires petabytes of monthly bandwidth costing tens of millions a year.
It’s been an amazing market for developers. I remember selling software through retail, where they took about 70% and we had to pay massive printing, duplication and packaging costs on top of that.
Apple has increased the number of developers many times by creating a frictionless direct to customers market with huge revenues.
Of course this goes both ways, but it’s still apples house. Some devs like flappy birds made a bundle from the iOS App Store. Apple provides the opportunity for nearly a pittance.
I fail to see what the “disservice“ is. Apple created the App Store as the go-to place to get apps, and if I wanted to create an iOS app, I could and immediately begin making money. Constantly reviewing new versions of apps is not cheap!
What other platforms dealing entirely in digital goods are you referring to, before the App Store? Steve Jobs got digital music to actually work reasonably with iTunes (before that it was a hodgepodge of companies with unrealistic expectations and draconian policies facing off against a free-for-all of file sharing piracy), and if I understand correctly, iTunes charges something in the neighborhood of 30%. The App Store was going up against physical software sales, where 30% was a bargain.
It would be 30 + 12 on the xbox if EPIC released their launcher for xbox. Microsoft only recently dropped their fee from 30 to 12 on PC.
If EPIC were allowed to have their launcher on xbox without paying any fees to Microsoft then it would be 12%. As it stands now they would be obliged to pay Microsoft their 30% too.
“The app store forces developers to treat their software in a sub-par way to give customers a sub-par experience to charge uncompetitive handling and processing fees to inflate the price of digital goods," the CEO of Epic Games said.”
Has anyone ever shown data to suggest that I could save money because of the lower cost of apps on Android?
Or…… Do they generally cost the same there and this argument doesn’t hold water?
I have a guess as to the answer.
Has anyone ever shown data to suggest that I could save money because of the lower cost of apps on Android?
Or…… Do they generally cost the same there and this argument doesn’t hold water?
I have a guess as to the answer.
I seem to recall that there are some developers who make their apps free with ads on Android while charging a couple dollars for their apps on iOS.
The theory is that most Android users are thrifty (I'm trying to be polite here) and will simply refuse to spend any money on apps, even if it's just a couple dollars.
I remember hearing that somewhere. If anyone can provide some info on this topic, that would be great.
Actually... the first few months it wasn't. The first price dropped was rumored to be a push by Apple and AT&T together. Although it wasn't touted that way. I remember just seeing the price drop in an article and people auto-assumed Apple did that.
Ballmer did get the price point of the iPhone right. He was also right on the email front in the sense that it did not appeal to the Enterprise. Apple had to build Enterprise support in iPhone OS 2 to fix the shortcomings.
Other than that, he simply didn't understand what the iPhone was and how much better it was than WindowsMobile. Due to that bad understanding and poor foresight WindowsMobile and Windows Phone is now dead.
Ah, interesting. I may recall having read that as well?I seem to recall that there are some developers who make their apps free with ads on Android while charging a couple dollars for their apps on iOS.
The theory is that most Android users are thrifty (I'm trying to be polite here) and will simply refuse to spend any money on apps, even if it's just a couple dollars.
I remember hearing that somewhere. If anyone can provide some info on this topic, that would be great.
It makes sense, although that seems to attribute more to the user base than the difference in financial burden between the two ecosystems?
There was an article on MR a few years ago. In the end it boiled down to the iPhone user base is likely better off financially due to the price differences of Android devices. Hence, people with an iPhone usually have a budget to spend on apps. Androids were sold in markets which are emerging or extreme budget constrained. Mind you this was years ago. Unsure if the article holds up today.
False. Microsoft is asking for 30% on Xbox Live Store. Sony is doing the same on PlayStation store. All facts, no printers.
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If I recall correctly, you would be correct that before the App Store, taking 30% of anything as a digital platform was unthinkable, as I recall the seller portions were quite a bit higher back then. I do recall thinking 30% was finally a pretty reasonable cut, and was even happier when they lowered it to 15%. What is Epic charging these days?
Yes, it was created prior to the ios app store, but didn't really take off until 2007-2008 and didn't support Apple products until much later. But it wasn't really an app store, it was more focused toward gaming. So it's not a fair comparison.
Not at all. 12% is only if you use their payment system. If you use a different payment gate you pay 0%.
Steam takes a 30% fee and allow you to release practically any game you want.
Epic takes 12% and allow you to list a store or use different payment gates for 0% fee.
Microsoft takes 0% for apps, 0% for stores 12% for games
I mean, and consumers who are starting to chaff at having their choices restricted and an inability to use hardware now more than capable of more to do more more fully. Plenty of small developers did and do very well on traditional computing platforms, having the ability to sideload apps wont destroy the ability of small companies to make software for phones.
You gotta be kidding me.... Hosting what?? About 10 games? ?
It didn't even crossed my mind to think about Steam! There's no comparison!
It is Apple’s "house" but because of their dominance in the mobile OS market (at least in some countries), that opens them up to more scrutiny regarding potential anticompetitive business practices.