121–130 of 133 posts
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The DUNS number has nothing to do with Apple, except for the critical fact that Apple requires one when they don't have to.
I presume it's the only way for them to tell if you have actually registered a company in your country.
http://www.zachbruhnke.com/how-to-get-a-duns-number-for-free...
its currently somewhere on the New page, upvote it if its useful
And yet tons of other developers and companies seem to do just fine in the App Store, without juvenile crap like this.
A rant like this coming from people that have been seriously screw by Apple, I would understand. But you don't even have the app made yet by your own admission.
You have a half-finished app, that "you learned Objective-C while building it".
And somehow it's the DUNS that slows down your path to world domination and profit?
Why do you need a DUNS in the first place? An individual doesn't need one, and a company knows better than to blame another company for something a THIRD company handles and that even the government makes a requirement to do business with you.
Why do you even need a DUNS number? If you're an individual person, just get an individual account and sell it that way. Honestly, this seems a bit like a publicity stunt to me. Everyone loves hating on Apple these days, and if you can tie it to "look at my new opensource project", then BAM, it hits HN front page.
I opened a company specifically for this (ipad/iphone development) it was my plan to leave my current company and build something less stressful. I reached a point where I'm no longer interested in building apps for the app store, apple asks too much and give us too little. I posted on HN because most readers are also programmers and they are exactly whom will fork the project, etc. That said, yep, it can be consider…
This seems more like wishful thinking (and underestimating the effort and polish needed) than a serious business decision.
>I reached a point where I'm no longer interested in building apps for the app store, apple asks too much and give us too little.
It asks for: a Mac to work (lots of people have one already) on, a $99/year iOS developer account and 30% of your sales.
With that you get: an quite capable IDE for free, a top-notch SDK, tons of documentation, access to a market of 100+ million devices and one-click credit card accounts that is KNOWN to sell billions of apps.
Seems like a bargain. Heck, companies used to sell a developer license for their SDK at the price of a high-end Mac itself -- and without providing access to any market or a free IDE. A lot still do.
What exactly have you provided to feel so entitled? A half-finished app, built while "learning Objective-C"?
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"you make it sound as something bad" Because you've basically admitted that your post is disingenuous. The DUNS requirement is easily sidestepped in the short term and a complete non-issue in the long term.
But it really shouldn't be an issue in the first place, right?
Plus, it helps keep out the less motivated.
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I'm confused - if you opened a company, then there is obviously going to be a lot more paperwork/hoops to jump through than if you did this as an individual. Maybe I'm missing something here - why didn't you just publish the App as an individual?
My idea was to release an app every 3-5 months and make at least 60k/year. I cannot sell that much in Brazil as a individual (limit here is 36k BRL). Actually, it took me 8 days to open the company. At the first day I had the CNPJ (EIN in the US), so, in fact, it took me less than 24 hours to be able to accept payments. I don't see the app store as a viable way of making a living anymore (for single developers). I'll…
It was never a "viable way of making a living" in the sense you describe. Who told you you can "release an app every 3-5 months and make 60k/year at least"?
For one, a proper apps takes a lot more time.
Second, no app is guaranteed to make anything at all.
Especially if it's coming from someone that hasn't made released any other iPhone app, doesn't know the market and doesn't know Objective-C! The App Store is like any other market: it takes effort, determination, hard work and/or luck.
And you devised all this plan (and even paid to start a company) without even testing the waters with a single app? Perhaps seeing something in the range of 2K a year for your first app (as many developers do, and most even less) would have spared you all this trouble.
Seems to me like you had this idea that the App Store was like a money printing service, where you just churn out some apps and roll in the dough, and in the first sign of trouble (and BS trouble at that, like the DUNS requirement) you demand the free money you were promised...
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My idea was to release an app every 3-5 months and make at least 60k/year. I cannot sell that much in Brazil as a individual (limit here is 36k BRL). Actually, it took me 8 days to open the company. At the first day I had the CNPJ (EIN in the US), so, in fact, it took me less than 24 hours to be able to accept payments. I don't see the app store as a viable way of making a living anymore (for single developers). I'll…
AFAIK 36k/year is the cut-off for lower taxes, not a hard limit (for independent workers/RPA). You do get much lower taxes by doing business as a company though.
It's funny, but you also have to admire the optimism. If it only was accompanied with more persistence.
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Why would a developer move to Android? Even today it's harder to get sales on Android. I would expect devs to move to the web or possibly make a bet on one of the other platforms.
I'm saying that eventually Android and other platforms will grow to match or exceed the spends of iOS customers. If it were me doing it now, I would develop for iOS because thats where the money is at the moment. Having said that, you need to deal with the hoops that this developer is talking about. To my mind that is just part of doing business though.
Android playing with low margins has so far just resulted in it wining a huge share of the demographic that doesn't buy many apps and don't much care for smartphones anyway.
The App Store can probably be more profitable than Android apps even with 1/10 the users -- as long as those are the right users.
Not sure. It's been thirty years since the "desktop PC" market and Apple still commands the majority of the profits from personal computers sold.
(Lots of techies and tinkerers also choose Android for it being more "open", but those are an insignificant minority that doesn't mean anything money wise).
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AFAIK 36k/year is the cut-off for lower taxes, not a hard limit (for independent workers/RPA). You do get much lower taxes by doing business as a company though.
So he thought he had it all figured out, and was so sure we would beat 36K/year that he opened a company just to ensure lower taxes when the inevitable happens... It's funny, but you also have to admire the optimism. If it only was accompanied with more persistence.
Why not just team up with a publisher? They submit the app using their Apple ID, they help with marketing, reviews, etc. They get a cut of the profits, but it sounds like it would be worth it in your case.
Can you link to an example of these publishers? My Google-fu fails me.