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Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

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Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#381

Post by ksec »

NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #194
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 them…

>It happens all the times, and it's called "good business".

I would have agreed with you if Apple had,

Paused and in any sort of PR, Marketing, or answer direct from the executive team that they are at least thinking about the issue. Except they double down on thinking they deserved that 30% if not more. ( Perfectly Fine )

Did not take hard stand against developers and thinking themselves as so righteous. ( Also Fine )

But then suddenly turn around and act like Santa to Help SME or smaller developers, when Apple are under pressure in multiple countries for their App Store policy.

May be Tim Cook did not realise, Apple has turned into hypocrite just like Google did in their Do No Evil era.

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#382

Post by zepto »

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…

I think it’s neither cynical nor doing the right thing. It’s small positive move, but I don’t expect it to change anything for most developers.

The 30% is really not the elephant in the room.

What makes it so hard to make money on the App Store is the speed at which knock offs can appear.

The App Store supports deep work that is hard to copy and work where there is a backend with network effects.

For everything else it’s just a lottery.

30% isn’t the issue.

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#384

Post by psahgal »

api wrote: post #351
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…

What does Nintendo, etc., charge to develop and distribute for a console? Captive platforms are not new. iOS devices are consoles.

This IGN article from 2019 has a good summary of how much each digital storefront takes in revenue cut! https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/10/07/report-steams-30-cut...

Nintendo also takes a 30% cut, although it used to be 35% for WiiWare games. This does NOT include the cost of acquiring development hardware, which usually sets you back $1000 at most. 30% is actually the industry standard; Steam takes 30% and Epic Games takes 30% for smaller titles.

Regarding your comment on captive platforms, I think there's a bit of a difference between a home console and a smartphone. A home console is considered a luxury item, while a smartphone has quickly become a necessity in today's connected world.

For home consoles, market competition is fierce. Not only is there Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, but there's also the PC gaming market, which includes devices in a variety of form factors. There's also multiple storefronts. You can buy console games from physical stores, in which case physical retailers take a cut, purchase Steam keys from other vendors, trade physical games, etc. In summary, there's a lot of ways to acquire your games.

In contrast, smartphones are seen as a necessity by many, and there are really only two options: Android or iOS. Each has a dedicated storefront that captures almost their entire user base. This gives Apple and Google a LOT of power over what people can run on their devices, and it practically gives them a guaranteed source of income. I can see why people's attitudes are different towards the Apple/Google duopoly, and that few people are complaining about Nintendo's monopoly on the eShop.

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#385

Post by dpkonofa »

pja wrote: post #246
indigochill wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's along the same lines of what Microsoft did when they were being investigated as a monopoly: throw a bone to smaller developers (or in Microsoft's case, kids in school) which actually just grows their market share (in Microsoft's case, kids learn to use Microsoft products and take that to work, in Apple's case, more devs see profitability in the Mac garden). > Apple / Google’s 30% take is the anti-competitive ele…

Appoogle are a duopoly. You can’t get significant sales on mobile phones without going through their respective App Stores, which both charge 30%. What a coincidence! Your comparisons with book publishers are specious: if I write a book today I can go to any of a number of publishers, none of whom have any kind of control over access to readers. Or I can even self-publish and sell direct. Jailbreaking is a complete i…

I don't think that's a fair assessment at all. Both Google and, especially, Apple have spent millions of dollars, hours, and effort to create their respective App Stores and the people and tools needed to run them. There's a reason why there's a difference, in the real world, between a Walmart and a Target or Sprouts. Likewise, there's a difference between Apple, Google, or anyone else's App Stores. The main difference being that Apple makes it easy and far less risky for customers to pay for what they're getting. Developers aren't buying into just the App Store, they're buying in to the whole group of customers that said App Store brings with them.

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#386

Post by mcintyre1994 »

mrtksn wrote: post #340
sercand wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least review process is better than Google's because when we rejected on Play Store we can't get any feedback from Google. They send a template email which says the "problem maybe A or B, check what you have changed". Apple provides screenshots and human written explanation on rejection. I have even talked on the phone with review team several times to discuss the problem. Yes, it sucks that the update may be reje…

Apple's human touch is underrated and I feel like those who complain about Apple's review process have no real world experience and talking from ideological standpoint. I was more than glad to receive a f..g phone call from the reviewer telling me why he will reject my update, why is it this way and what I can do to make it pass and give me his phone number to call if I need further assistance. I become die hard Appl…

I've never heard feedback that good about Apple's app store approval process, thanks for sharing a new perspective! Can you give an idea of the size of the developer account you were submitting for/how established your apps were?

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#387

Post by zaroth »

whimsicalism wrote: post #379
zaroth wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just look at what Apple has accomplished in the meteoric rise of the iPhone. This is strong evidence of a company that is competing like hell to keep and grow its customers base. “Hurting consumers” would be an almost Orwellian characterization of the smartphone technology revolution driven predominantly by the competition between Apple, Samsung, Google, Huawei, etc.

> a company that is competing like hell The problem is when by "competing like hell", you compete so hard that you suppress your competition. The issue that anti-competition laws seek to redress is the suppression of other competition.

Except the competition isn’t suppressed, and there’s no actual monopoly here.

What we have is a pretty clear case of a minuscule minority of users bitterly complaining that a company isn’t making its products exactly the way they want them to.

A store is allowed to charge what it wants for its products. A store is allowed to set the policies that it wants for the goods that it sells in its own stores.

It just so happens that Apple’s customers absolutely love its products, and that Apple’s products are absolute technological leaders in their space.

Apple didn’t get there, e.g. like Facebook by buying up the competition any time it started to emerge as a threat. They got there through decades of focused development and investment.

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#389

Post by baq »

zaroth wrote: post #348
baq wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the whole point of antitrust regulations is that > Both Apple and Google are fully within their rights to charge whatever they want within their app store and enforce whatever capricious whims they like on apps that they distribute. actually isn't always true - especially when it hurts consumers. of course it isn't up to us here to decide if it does. remember that private doesn't mean unregulated.

Just look at what Apple has accomplished in the meteoric rise of the iPhone. This is strong evidence of a company that is competing like hell to keep and grow its customers base. “Hurting consumers” would be an almost Orwellian characterization of the smartphone technology revolution driven predominantly by the competition between Apple, Samsung, Google, Huawei, etc.

replace 'apple' with 'standard oil', 'iphone' with 'kerosene' and '2020' with '1900'.

Re: Apple Announces App Store Small Business Program

#390

Post by Lichtso »

ksec wrote: post #372
pja wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Appoogle are a duopoly. You can’t get significant sales on mobile phones without going through their respective App Stores, which both charge 30%. What a coincidence! Your comparisons with book publishers are specious: if I write a book today I can go to any of a number of publishers, none of whom have any kind of control over access to readers. Or I can even self-publish and sell direct. Jailbreaking is a complete i…

> Appoogle I did a search on Google and nothing really came up. Did you just invent the term? I love the name. It might end up in Main Stream Media soon.

How about Gopple?
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