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Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

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Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#291
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…

Are you kidding me? This is great news for indies and small companies, to which I count myself, and I will be making 15% more money. Dude, I'm really happy reading this announcement today, thanks Apple, what else is there to say? I think some of you might have trust issues, and are stuck in a spiral of negativity, it's getting a bit weird. Now Google please follow!

Unless I am misunderstanding, I believe you will be making 21.4% more money?

(70% share of revenue -> 85% share of revenue)

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#292
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…

Are you kidding me? This is great news for indies and small companies, to which I count myself, and I will be making 15% more money. Dude, I'm really happy reading this announcement today, thanks Apple, what else is there to say? I think some of you might have trust issues, and are stuck in a spiral of negativity, it's getting a bit weird. Now Google please follow!

You’re actually making 21.4% more!

And for any dev with more than 0% marginal cost the increase in profit is even higher.

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#294

How about personal accounts (using John Doe instead Acme Inc)? Also, I'm new to App Store, does it mean they hold your money for (up to) a year so they can decide which bracket you fall into?

Apple pays monthly at 45 days after the end of the month.

So they won't be holding on to money.

It means you'll have a 15% cut taken out of your revenue until you exceed $1.176m (which becomes $1m of your post commission revenue) at which point all future revenue for that year will have a 30% cut (year 1).

You'll continue to pay 30% the following year (year 2).

If at the end of that year, your post commission revenue is less than $1m (ie you earned less than $1.42m pre-commission), then the year after that you'll be back on the 15% rate (year 3).

So there's a gap there that will mean that if you are close to that initial $1.176m near the end of the year, you should stop your sales, unless you expect the following year to have at least an additional ~$300K in sales to make up for the increased commission.

It would be better and more logical to apply the same rule for each calendar year. Start at 15% and ramp to 30% as the equivalent of a marginal tax.

On the other hand, the costs to Apple are essentially flat for all apps, so other than their own revenue, there's no justification for the increased commission.

People can argue about whether developers get value for money from the app store (ie, what commission is appropriate for someone providing billing, local taxation, debt collection, all receivables risk etc).

People can also argue about whether Apple has a monopoly. If they do, it's on their own hardware. So it's not a market monopoly. If you define the market as "app stores for Apple hardware".

People can also argue that Google and Apple have a price fixing arrangement.

They could argue back that they don't, they both independently came to the same commission rates (or that Google followed Apple, so that's not Apple's fault).

They could also argue that they don't control the market, depending on how the market is defined, eg "mobile phone applications" as a market has numerous other app stores.

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#295
post #209
post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple/Google's 30% take is a tiny baby elephant in the room. Apple and Google have a model where they make lots MORE money outside the system and if the price of software is ZERO they would be happy. In Apple's case, even free software sells their phone. In Google's case, even free software funnels users to their ad platform. [1] "Smart companies try to commoditize their products’ complements." 1: https://www.joelons…

Apple has no growth left in selling phones. They are now a “services” business. Their most lucrative service so far is the app store. That 30% matters to them a lot.

> Apple has no growth left in selling phones

Increasing prices on top-of-the-line iPhones beg to differ.

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#296

Classic antitrust maneuver; divide and conquer, this time from Apple. Antitrust activists shouldn't let this dull their pencil. The main issue is not the exorbitant commission rate. Apple is hurting the consumers via its anti-competitive behavior with regards to what apps people are and are not allowed to install on a device that they've paid for. They are blocking value creation up and down the stack in a manner tha…

I have to agree you. It's intolerable that Apple has been allowed to lockdown their device for 10 years, completely control the market for apps and when it looks like regulators will take action they reduce their price and claim to be acting in the interest of small business. Third party app stores must be allowed. Apple should not be allowed to dictate what software I can and cannot have on my device.

Why not get another device? Third party app stores break the security model for regular users.

Smartphones have seen explosive growth because normal people can use them safely.

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#297
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…

Are you kidding me? This is great news for indies and small companies, to which I count myself, and I will be making 15% more money. Dude, I'm really happy reading this announcement today, thanks Apple, what else is there to say? I think some of you might have trust issues, and are stuck in a spiral of negativity, it's getting a bit weird. Now Google please follow!

Love the spocks answering your comment. Jesus, we understood what you meant by 15%.

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#298
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…

“In today’s news Apple announced the opening of its iOS platform to allow users to install any apps they want from any alternative App Store. Posters on ycombinator.com denounced the move as a cynical attempt to generate positive PR. Said one, just because Apple has listened to us and stopped doing the evil things we asked it to stop, does not mean we won’t find new things to criticize it as evil for.”

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#299
post #199
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

No, I’m not. In Italy it’s common to see markups of 600% on veggies at the supermarket.

There are few intermediaries and they get to dictate prices, mandatory discounts, and run double-discounted auctions (which the legislature is trying to make illegal.) If you get to outsmart them selling to another distributor (as if they’re not conniving already) good luck selling your next load of perishable goods before it rots.

Also brick & mortar shops make hideous markups to cover for their poor selection, inventory and commercial space rent (so sure, it doesn’t line only their pockets but for the final consumer it doesn’t make much difference.)

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Apple didn't fear either Epic's lawsuit or Congressional action, or both, they'd never reduce their app store cut, for anyone, ever. This announcement means Apple knows that neither public opinion nor the law is on their side and they're about to lose really, really big. And they're hoping if they can flip this around a bit and get control of the narrative, they can convince regulators they will self-regulate... w…

> they can convince regulators they will self-regulate... while continuing to get a third of the revenue from all the most lucrative developers. So what? Seriously, who cares if Epic earns 14 bzillionty dollars this month, or 20 bzillionty dollars? At that scale, the 30% is such a terrible thorn in your side? Come on. Cry me a damn river. The 'narrative' here is Epic pretending they care about anyone except themselve…

Provide an officially-sanctioned way to install alternative software sources.

macOS has that; Apple will even certify third party developers so that the system can still validate software outside of the Mac App Store. That kind of security model would be perfect for iOS and would moot pretty much all the substantive parts of Epic's complaint.

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