Ah, that’s what I was wondering. If this is successful, then THEY get to take whatever percentage doesn’t go to Apple, so they stand to make a lot of money if this goes through. Thanks for the info.
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Y Combinator Files Brief Supporting Epic Games, Says App Store Fees Stifle Startups
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DUDE You just triggered PTSD!
Except you can't get your product in a store just because you make it. Walmart has to accept your product. Also Coke can't put up signs at Walmart stating that it's cheaper at Costco. Almost like the store owner can pick and choose.
Ask Epic how much was their percentage when they sold Unreal Tournament at Best Buy.... Less than 30%.
It's absolutely hilarious how everybody has seem to forgot, how everyone was more than okay with the App Store rules and the 30% cut. And Apple and the iPhone basically still was nothing back then, when the App Store launched. So you can't even argue, that they could have forced amyone into the ecosystem.
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What I don’t understand about Epic’s approach is why they aren’t challenging Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo over their online game stores. Don’t those platforms also take a cut of third-party game sales, just like Apple does?
iPhone users have to use stock apps cause no devs want to make apps for iOS, cause it is too much work to make a smartphone platform as the user I quoted suggested doing.
You quoted me. I offered options that a developer can do. You added another option to that list.
If a dev doesn't like Apple's policies, they should leave and another dev who likes Apple's policies would take over that space. The market handles these issues fine. Your option makes no sense for the user.
I just miss all the great early to mid 2010s iOS games we had like mega run, ninjatown trees of Doom, chop chop ninja, and the thousands of other smaller/ indie games. kinda wish apple could somehow court those devs back. make it into like a retro version of apple arcade or something. I miss going on the treadmill with music and playing those simple games to just kinda get me going. the games were usually easy enough to use the treadmill and had simple enough controls so it kind of begets the exersise. maybe that and how apple marketing was at the time with the tommy sparks ads and stuff. I miss that early 2010s marketing too. wish they'd bring that back as well.
But that's more of a problem of the way venture capital works, not of Apple and their ecosystem. The latter might be more suited to bootstrapped startups maybe.
I can see that this might be a problem for Y Combinator and their "let's throw startups at the wall and see what sticks" business model, but they obviously have a huge bias in this discussion.
At least as far as I know, you also cannot develop Android software on an Android phone, at least not properly. The official Android Studio needs a PC (Windows or Linux) or a Mac.
You also cannot develop native Windows software on anything else than Windows, or again, at least not without huge efforts and problems.
So yeah. You do have to buy a Mac to develop anything for iPhone. Which could be a Mac mini. If this is an investment that is a huge problem for your business, your business probably has bigger issues.
Cannot say that only minimal value is added by Apple. Unfortunately after all this, the companies are still not passing the benefits to the customers. In app subscriptions are not becoming cheaper just because direct link to external sites are allowed.
A developer’s iOS app has to be sold in the iOS App Store. Any other app the developer makes can be sold wherever they like.
Also Coca Cola might actually make the Sam’s Cola. Many big brands make own label products for supermarkets that are only sold in the one store.
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People here are surprised that a company that benefits from higher profit margins in App store is for lowering the fees on the app store? Come on...
Apple's business model relies on earning through sales in the App Store. If they earn less via the App Store because developers can start selling through other stores, Apple will have to change it's model to compensate for that, by for example charging enormous Developer program fees.
For developers, plain marketshare of a platform is pretty meaningless.
Yes, Android does have the bigger marketshare. But a lot of that is cheap devices and not very affluent markets. These users rarely buy apps (well maybe free-to-play/pay-to-win type of games).
I don't have current numbers at hand, but IIRC in 2021, the Apple App Store made about twice as much revenue compared to Google's Play Store. Go figure.
Well, you can only buy certain clothing at certain stores. Same goes for say a new car or even brands of food/drinks. It's not uncommon to find specific brands to be purchased only via specific retailers.
If you can't afford to pay suppliers, your failed business is on you, not them.
The cost of a mac mini and an annual $99 developer fee is a low cost entry to a multi-billion dollar industry. And everything depends on what the developer intends to do with the app they create. If they want to give something away. They can do so with no further cost. And even make money on AD revenue. If they want to sell what they create. They can do so VERY easily, while still only costing them a fixed rate based on what they make. All of which can be factored in when coming up with the price of the product. Want to make $1 million in sales. Then sell the app for $1.3million. It's not like you wouldn't know how much it was going to cost. If you need to make X after your investment, and all operational costs. You charge accordingly, hope you get the demand you're looking for "at least". And if you get anything extra. Use it to develop the next thing, and so on.
Every business needs to make a profit. Every single one. If you are not into that, then there are still some communist countries out there in the world that may be more suited to your tastes.