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If Apple only charged fees on the initial download, EVERY app would just become free and prompt you to make an in-app purchase before the app would be useable. It'd be a very easy loophole to exploit, charging the commission wether the developer wants their user to pay up front or via IAPs given the developer flexibility based on what their app does/what makes sense for the user AND ensures Apple gets paid.
If Apple charged all developers fairly you’d have a point. They don’t charge Netflix, or any app that is ad driven like YouTube…
 
Alright... so no commission fees? Anywhere?

Apple can't charge commission fees.
Google can't charge commission fees.
Sony can't charge commission fees.
Microsoft can't charge commission fees.
Nintendo can't charge commission fees.

That'll be interesting...

;)
They can charge commission but only if they use their payment processing. If they don’t then they can’t. i actually do think that Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo should allow games to offer their own payment processing.

If Apple wants to charge a commission like the game consoles do they would have to demonstrate that, like game consoles, they don’t make money on hardware and need the commission to actually justify and fund future development of the platform. Apple makes enough money from the hardware to fund the platform development. Games consoles also aren’t essential computing platforms the way that phones are.
 
Greed? How much money does Apple make from the (mostly 15%, not 30%) fees? Unless you know exactly what Apple's profits from App Store commissions are, you're being upset just to be upset. You don't know if Apple makes anything on the App Store. It's likely they do but we don't have that information. Maybe Apple's margin is only 5%. Is that too much? Maybe it's 50%. Is that too much? Are developers making money? Are developers making too much or too little money?
Are you seriously suggesting Apple may not make massive amounts of money on the App Store? Wow!
 
Greed? How much money does Apple make from the (mostly 15%, not 30%) fees? Unless you know exactly what Apple's profits from App Store commissions are, you're being upset just to be upset. You don't know if Apple makes anything on the App Store. It's likely they do, but we don't have that information (unless you work for Apple and happen to know). Maybe Apple's margin is only 5%. Is that too much? Maybe it's 70%. Is that too much? Are developers making money? Are developers making too much or too little money?

Why is 5% appropriate? That would likely lose Apple money -- it's expensive to run the App Store. How do I know 5% would lose them money? Apple's services gross (not even net) margins are about 70%. There is little chance Apple is making that much on the App Store but let's just assume the App Store is at a 70% margin. With an assumed 70% margin and a 30% fee (most developers are not paying that much), Apple gross "break even" point is a 9% fee. That's gross margin though and would in reality lose Apple money. If Apple mainly has 15% fees, Apple gross "break even" point is a 4.5% commission. Again, that's not net, so that level would lose Apple money.

What this means is 5% will almost certainly lose Apple money. 10% might only be a break even point. This means that Apple charging 15% to most developers and 30% to others, allows Apple to make some money.

Can Apple only charge a fee if it loses them money? Can Apple only break even? Is Apple only allowed a small margin? What is an appropriate margin for Apple? Why do you get to decide?


We know the App Store margins are huge. Expert witness in the Epic trial estimated the margins at nearly 80%


 
We know the App Store margins are huge. Expert witness in the Epic trial estimated the margins at nearly 80%


The company suing Apple hired an expert witness who ran calculations and said Apple's margins were 78%. Apple's executives, who might not be telling the truth but who do have insider knowledge, denied it. Which company do you believe? The company suing Apple or Apple?

Who do I believe? Neither company. I don't have the data so I reserve judgment. However, I'll lean towards believing Apple because it at least has the data and Apple's executives said Epic's witness's number was wrong.
 
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I guess it kind of makes sense because the app was discovered on the App Store, therefore they feel entitled to charging commission, even if it was purchased elsewhere. It's kind of an attribution model, albeit it comes across as ghastly money grab. It's causing devs to resent them but they simply don't care - they prioritise reporting revenue growth whatever it takes.

I don't think I've "discovered" an app on the App Store since the iPhone 6 was new. I always read about them elsewhere first, then go to the app store and get them.

That said, I haven't downloaded a single new app from the App Store in a couple years, found there or otherwise. It's a wasteland.
 
Are you seriously suggesting Apple may not make massive amounts of money on the App Store? Wow!
I said we don't know (read the rest of my comment) how much Apple makes from the App Store. The commenter I replied to said Apple should have 5% fee (or at least a 5% fee wouldn't be controversial). I countered saying we don't know how much Apple makes so we can't say what the fee "should" be.
 
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Based on insider knowledge of what Apple's margins are or your guesses? Based on what a hostile company's expert witness (who didn't have insider knowledge) claimed in a lawsuit?

The judge in the 2021 case agreed with the estimate that the margin was north of 70%.
 
Are you saying you would still buy an iPhone if no non Apple app could be installed.

Where is my former employers 30% from Apple for the 10 of thousands of iPads that bot only to run its app.
What does this response have to do with the original post. What point are you attempting to make. That devs and apple each have something to offer and if a dev wants what apple offers (customers) these are the rules?
They make huge margins on the hardware, without the hardware there is no reason for the software to exist.

Do you think people would still buy iPhones if they couldn't run Instagram/Tik Tok etc on them? Some would but millions wouldn't. So does Apple owe Meta and Tik Tok a cut of the profits from iPhone sales, or does it only work one way?

Third party developers have provided a huge amount of value to Apples ecosystem. Look at any of the Vision Pro threads countless posts waiting for third party devs to make apps that actually make the thing useful.
Yep agreed. And devs get paid handsomely too. See epic. Making boatloads of money and they got greedy, tired or whatever. Now they are making $0 from the platform. Apple won every count except one.

So what’s your point?
 
The judge in the 2021 case agreed with the estimate that the margin was north of 70%.
Where is that written? I've found this statement from the judge: "'While the court finds that Apple enjoys considerable market share of over 55 percent and extraordinarily high profit margins, these factors alone do not show antitrust conduct,' she said. 'Success is not illegal.'"

Do you have a link where the judge confirmed >70% margins? I'm asking because "extraordinarily high profit margins" is a subjective statement but a number (like what she said about Apple' market share) would be objective. Do you have that number from the judge's ruling?

Edit: see the reply. Apparently the judge did claim >70% margins. What’s unknown is if that’s also pulling from numbers Apple might have provided. It’s possible that statement was largely based on Epic’s witness’s testimony but Apple could have provided actual data. If the number is accurate, then I understand why Apple doesn’t want to reduce the fee.

However, see my original comment for a little reality check for people claiming Apple can do a 5% fee. That’s not possible to maintain profitability. If we go with most of the money coming from big developers paying 30%, Apple’s gross but not net break-even point is around a 9% fee. Apple’s net break-even point is likely closer to a 12% fee, unless Apple cuts back on services provided.

Does Apple cut everyone down to 15%? If Apple’s services margins decline, Apple will increase hardware margins. Apple tries to keep overall margins around 40% and has for many years. Sometimes they’ve been lower and sometimes a little higher, but Apple doesn’t run like Amazon. It keeps margins.
 
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The problem is that as you point out, it isn’t fair. One of the biggest earners (Netflix) pays nothing.
Isn’t fair to who? Why are you concerned about the way the rules are?
Apple doesn’t need this money for API development,
No, but they are entitled to the fees.
if they were fair about it you might have a point but the thing is, Apple needs developers just as much as they need Apple. An iPhone without apps isn’t a success. It’s a symbiotic relationship and if Apple wants a cut of developer revenue then developers should also get a cut of Apple’s revenue.
The AppStore revenue says this relationship working between devs and apple. Sure bumps along the way, who doesn’t have a bump every now and then.
 
Greed? How much money does Apple make from the (mostly 15%, not 30%) fees? Unless you know exactly what Apple's profits from App Store commissions are, you're being upset just to be upset. You don't know if Apple makes anything on the App Store. It's likely they do, but we don't have that information (unless you work for Apple and happen to know). Maybe Apple's margin is only 5%. Is that too much? Maybe it's 70%. Is that too much? Are developers making money? Are developers making too much or too little money?

Why is 5% appropriate? That would likely lose Apple money -- it's expensive to run the App Store. How do I know 5% would lose them money? Apple's services gross (not even net) margins are about 70%. There is little chance Apple is making that much on the App Store but let's just assume the App Store is at a 70% margin. With an assumed 70% margin and a 30% fee (most developers are not paying that much), Apple gross "break even" point is a 9% fee. That's gross margin though and would in reality lose Apple money. If Apple mainly has 15% fees, Apple gross "break even" point is a 4.5% commission. Again, that's not net, so that level would lose Apple money.

What this means is 5% will almost certainly lose Apple money. 10% might only be a break even point. This means that Apple charging 15% to most developers and 30% to others, allows Apple to make some money.

Can Apple only charge a fee if it loses them money? Can Apple only break even? Is Apple only allowed a small margin? What is an appropriate margin for Apple? Why do you get to decide?

The bigger problem with the fees is they are targeted very heavily at only items that Apple also offers if digital items which gets back to vertical integration abuse of power and anti trust.

As soon as Apple started heavily offering their own in the same realm it becomes a big issue of anti trust and abuse of power.
 
The problem is that as you point out, it isn’t fair. One of the biggest earners (Netflix) pays nothing.

Apple doesn’t need this money for API development, if they were fair about it you might have a point but the thing is, Apple needs developers just as much as they need Apple. An iPhone without apps isn’t a success. It’s a symbiotic relationship and if Apple wants a cut of developer revenue then developers should also get a cut of Apple’s revenue.

Let’s look back. No Netflix would have killed Apple TV value to near zero. iPhone would have been hurt. So would the iPad.

How many people would have still bought the Apple TV with no Netflix on it while Netflix was still on everything else. Gets even worse when you go back in time even farther when Netflix was the only streaming service. Safe to say Netflix helped Apple more.
 
Where is that written? I've found this statement from the judge: "'While the court finds that Apple enjoys considerable market share of over 55 percent and extraordinarily high profit margins, these factors alone do not show antitrust conduct,' she said. 'Success is not illegal.'"

Do you have a link where the judge confirmed >70% margins? I'm asking because "extraordinarily high profit margins" is a subjective statement but a number (like what she said about Apple' market share) would be objective. Do you have that number from the judge's ruling?


1705498563897.png


What does this response have to do with the original post. What point are you attempting to make. That devs and apple each have something to offer and if a dev wants what apple offers (customers) these are the rules?

Yep agreed. And devs get paid handsomely too. See epic. Making boatloads of money and they got greedy, tired or whatever. Now they are making $0 from the platform. Apple won every count except one.

So what’s your point?

Please see the comments above.

Apple may have 'won' in as much as they couldn't be proven to me a monopolist they were admonished by the judge for anti consumer behavior she also said she felt some of Apples fees had only been changed due to the threat of litigation and not , as Tim Cook claimed, to boost competition.
 

View attachment 2337551



Please see the comments above.

Apple may have 'won' in as much as they couldn't be proven to me a monopolist they were admonished by the judge for anti consumer behavior she also said she felt some of Apples fees had only been changed due to the threat of litigation and not , as Tim Cook claimed, to boost competition.
Yes. Apple still gets to collect (thankfully) although the anti-steering provision allows for different collection points.
 
Your analogy is wrong as well. The developer still uses Xcode, the App Store hosting, thousands of APIs, app vetting team, etc. Those things cost billions of dollars annually (a couple thousand engineer salaries, global content delivery networks and cloud hosting resources, the costs of putting on WWDC, etc.)

In your analogy it'd be like Walmart providing HPE with the factory to make the ink and the packaging for it, the shelf to put it on, but then HPE want to pay them nothing for that because you use their payment processing when you leave the store.

My analogy is far closer to the situation than the other poster's "Target posting a sign in Walmart..."

Walmart spends billions on marketing/advertising, employees, real estate, shelving, lighting, etc. but that doesn't mean they should get a cut of HP sales if customers read the text on HP products in their stores and decide to buy/subscribe at hp.com.
 

View attachment 2337551



Please see the comments above.

Apple may have 'won' in as much as they couldn't be proven to me a monopolist they were admonished by the judge for anti consumer behavior she also said she felt some of Apples fees had only been changed due to the threat of litigation and not , as Tim Cook claimed, to boost competition.
Thank you for providing that.
 
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The message I could take or leave, but still collecting a commission for an external link? I don't think the mass amount of people who use the App Store to manage their subscription are going to jump out the window. C'mon Apple, why pull a Microsoft? Not cool.

Also, Sweeney shouldn't be throwing stones in glass houses since he doesn't offer Epic products on any store put his own.
 
My analogy is far closer to the situation than the other poster's "Target posting a sign in Walmart..."

Walmart spends billions on marketing/advertising, employees, real estate, shelving, lighting, etc. but that doesn't mean they should get a cut of HP sales if customers read the text on HP products in their stores and decide to buy/subscribe at hp.com.

They should if Walmart and HP have agreed that’s what should happen.
 
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Gosh, I jumped out of my seat because I misread the headline as Apple allowing third party app purchase and install. Not yet, not yet…
Yeah, given that it took as long as it did for USB-C to finally come to the iPhone, I wouldn't get too excited just yet

Even though the EU will have the ability to sideload/install from anything else aside from the App Store when iOS 18 launches next fall, the US probably will still have to wait a few more years
 
Golly, that warning though

Considering how much more minimal things have become like the volume indicator and everything, this kind of warning taking up the whole screen like this is a giant eyesore... Surely they couldn't have just done this via a little popup like everything else?
 
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