Thoughts on Mac App Store

[NATO]

I wasn't aware of that, thanks for the link. The only thing I can't understand is how Apple can't be making a fortune on the App Store - Not only are they making 30% of a huge number of sales, they're also charging $99 per-year for developers to access the App Store. In addition, with the Mac App store likely to have apps costing much more than iOS apps, that 30% cut stands to make them far more.

Either they're finding ways to disguise the App store profits, or they're very inefficient because with the 30% cut and $99/yr fees, it's hard to imagine how that can't amount to a significant profit, even after you take the costs of storage/distribution/billing out of the equation.

 

[CylonGlitch]

NATO, running a datacenter like the iTunes data center is VERY expensive! Just the bandwidth alone is taking up millions of dollars a month, I would even go as far as saying tens of millions. The storage for all the servers is HUGE, isn't their current facility some 500,000 sqft! And they are expanding it to over a million. How many thousands of servers, and people work there. How much electricity is costing, and how much the air conditioning is costing. ALL of that is expensive. They had to buy the land, build the buildings, and plan for the future (180+ acres is a lot of planning!)

It's not like a server setup in the basement of their building with a IT guy checking on it every week or so. This is a massive behemoth.

BTW, the $99/year is for their developers licensing, it has little to do with the iTunes store. I would assume that it is *NOT* part of the revenue for the iTunes store because it is used for so many other things, most likely it is its stand-alone unit.

 

[santaliqueur]

Anyone familiar with the industry would also tell you that things are moving towards a subscription model, which Apple is being "slow to adopt".

Source for the industry moving towards subscriptions?

Apple is far and away the leader in digital music sales in the US. They even sell more music than any other source, digital or not. Why would you think they would want to change their extremely successful business model?

I'm all for you trying to call Apple a stick in the mud about adopting new technologies, but I'd say they might know a little bit about being successful in selling music. No matter what "the industry" says.