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Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

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Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#191

Post by coward8675309 »

pja wrote: post #173

I’m seeing a lot of positive comments on HN about this: to me it seems to be purely a cynical piece of PR on Apple’s part. They hope to significantly reduce the pressure on politicians to take a close look at their App store practices by significantly reducing the absolute number of developers suffering the full impact whilst taking the minimum possible hit to their revenue. This has nothing to do with “doing the rig…

And/or are you cynically interpreting this as a piece of PR to rake in the karma? Nearly every act by every person or institution can be interpreted as a cynical attempt to curry favor. Who gets the benefit of a doubt and who gets condemned?

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#193

Post by photonios »

101008 wrote: post #182
Heliosmaster wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's exactly like the freelancer tax brackets in Italy. Everybody jumping through hoops (and or not declaring stuff) to remain under the threshold of 60k/year (was 30k/year). Otherwise tax rate doubles.

Same in Argentina, sadly :-( I would like if there is any solution to this other than to apply the same percentage to all income.

This is fixed in most countries by creating brackets that stack. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_tax

You'd pay let's say 15% over the first 30k, and then 30% over the remainder.

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#194

Post by NovemberWhiskey »

pja wrote: post #173

I’m seeing a lot of positive comments on HN about this: to me it seems to be purely a cynical piece of PR on Apple’s part. They hope to significantly reduce the pressure on politicians to take a close look at their App store practices by significantly reducing the absolute number of developers suffering the full impact whilst taking the minimum possible hit to their revenue. This has nothing to do with “doing the rig…

>to it seems to be purely a cynical piece of PR on Apple’s part.

Oh please.

Has it ever occurred in the history of the world that the selfish motives of two different parties aligned? i.e. Apple gets good press for helping smaller developers and the smaller developers get increased revenues. It happens all the times, and it's called "good business".

You can keep waiting for Apple's App Store executives to cover themselves with sackcloth and ashes and repent of their terrible policies. Let me know how that works out.

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#195

Post by bottled_poe »

madeofpalk wrote: post #76
andysinclair wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not aimed at solving your problem, this is aimed at helping us small developers build a more sustainable business on the App Store. We will ultimately build more apps and invest more time in supporting and improving our current apps.

> this is aimed at helping us small developers I doubt this was the aim. It suspect its aim was to fend off all this scrutiny on their App Store business. Who knows whether it'll work in avoiding attention from law makers and regulators, but this will do nothing to address the developer's concerns and problem with the App Store.

The cynic in me agrees. Perhaps Apple sees the writing on the wall and they can either make the change with good press or bad.

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#196

Post by philjohn »

gtsteve wrote: post #52
user-the-name wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This really isn't a problem in practice, unless you are going out of your way to try to bend the rules set in place, especially about sales.

Unless you're competing with something Apple is planning to bring out (parental control apps before screen time stats, etc). I don't think I'm competing with Apple at all today, but who knows what they're planning for their next features?

Didn't those apps get around lack of OS integration by essentially installing an always-on VPN ... something that could be a huge privacy issue?

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#197

Post by viktorcode »

dalbasal wrote: post #184
pja wrote: post #173

I’m seeing a lot of positive comments on HN about this: to me it seems to be purely a cynical piece of PR on Apple’s part. They hope to significantly reduce the pressure on politicians to take a close look at their App store practices by significantly reducing the absolute number of developers suffering the full impact whilst taking the minimum possible hit to their revenue. This has nothing to do with “doing the rig…

Sure, being pro-indie is good PR. I don't see how this helps with antitrust though. Either way, it is an actual policy. Newsworthy, at least. Also, a comment isn't necessarily positive or negative. This isn't a poll on Apple's HN approval rating. It's an announcement of a thing Apple is doing.

Commission size has nothing to do with anti-trust here. Apple didn't increase the rate from 2008, hence there's no basis for argument of anti-trust violation. It does undermines public (non-judicial) argument that App Store fee is bad for small developers, though.

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#198

Post by xuki »

OliverM wrote: post #68
asadkn wrote: post #23

All about PR. Pretty sure they make the big bucks off the $1million+ earners.

No. The majority of their income is from the less than $1million earners. That's how the long tail in economics works.

No, majority of the App Store revenue come from big developers. Think YouTube, all the freemium games, etc.

> The change will affect roughly 98 percent of the companies that pay Apple a commission, according to estimates from Sensor Tower, an app analytics firm. But those developers accounted for less than 5 percent of App Store revenues last year, Sensor Tower said. Apple said the new rate would affect the “vast majority” of its developers, but declined to offer specific numbers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/technology/apple-app-stor...

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#199

Post by toyg »

eecc wrote: post #163
sheeshkebab wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. As a small developer, apples 30% tax never bothered me - seemed excessive but worth it. The arbitrary and weird approval rules is what turned me off their platform. Although I could see how they are trying to appease antitrust regulators with this move - although they should have gone with 0 - 2% range for that. 15% is a substantial markup to price consumers would pay for using apples monopolized mobile softwa…

Imagine the outrage if people learned the markup that distributors make on vegetables and dairy as well as the monopsony power they wield against small farmers!

You’re kidding, right?

I don’t know how it is in the Land of the Free, but in Europe most margins on food are in the single digits all the way down. It’s true that small producers are squeezed at both ends, but at least there are market dynamics in place - if one supermarket chain takes too much, you go and sell to the other one, and the consumer can get it anyway.

Double-digit and triple-digit margins are the reason the software world is now dominating the economy. Most other sectors can only dream of that.

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