Developers sue Apple over $99 annual fee, mandatory pricing increments of $0.99

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 57
    mwhitemwhite Posts: 287member
    spice-boy said:
    You guys are really too much. Always seeing every story through Apple's eyes and never considering in this case a small developer trying to get their business off the ground. 
    Let me turn this around, "What's $99 to a corporation valued at 1 Trillion dollars?"
    How do you think they became a Trillion dollar company not by giving things away. It's a good thing you don't own a business you would be bankrupt by now....
    edited June 2019 watto_cobra
  • Reply 22 of 57
    dhawkins541dhawkins541 Posts: 107member
    The tools to develop an app cost as well should apple give developers a free mac as well so they can get off their feet and running? I get it that there are ”barriers to entry” to develop an app, but if you're serious then it shouldn't be that big a deal. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 23 of 57
    seanismorrisseanismorris Posts: 1,624member
    The article mentions a guy charges $2.99 (for his app) but can’t charge below 99c so he’s harmed in volume...

    So, he could have charged 99c and have greater volume but chose not to...

    So... He’s suing because he’s an idiot? And, never adjusted his prices to see what the market would bear.

    As for the 99c minimum... bitch to Congress not Apple.  Apple has the right to set prices and minimums as long as they do so universally across credit cards.

    As for the $99 charge to register an app... that obviously wasn’t worth a lawsuit by itself so they tacked on the other crap.

    As for the 30%, it seems high, but everyone knows the price Apple charges.  Do you sue your grocery story for how much they charge for apples?  

    Some merchants collect payments on their website and make their app free to download... the 30% is a convenience fee.

    One more frivolous lawsuit...
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 24 of 57
    This is all Apple's fault. After all, they foolishly provide and maintain a well built store to market and sell apps. Not only that but in the most ridiculous thing of all, they actually develop and provide the tools needed for the developer to easily develop the product. Apple is just so greedy for doing this horrible thing allowing them to make a dime to begin with. 
    edited June 2019 FileMakerFellerwatto_cobra
  • Reply 25 of 57
    NotsofastNotsofast Posts: 450member
    deminsd said:
    larryjw said:
    If you can't afford $99 developer fee, you're not in the business of making a profit. At best, you have a hobby not a profession.
    Not the point.  Apple has a monopoly over app distribution and the 30% piece of the pie is what is the "profit killer".  Not many businesses can take a 30% cut on profit.




    Excuse business people for chuckling at your comment.  It's not to make fun of you, but it's just that business people wish that your idea of how the business world worked was true.  In reality, it's understood that a business is going to be lucky to get with a 50% share of the retail price. That's why people thought it was so great when Apple built the App store and invited developers to participate and charged them only 30%.  (*It's also why so many developers are amazed that Apple doesn't charge them anything beyond the $99 if the developer wants to give away their app and make a bunch of money off of advertising or by having customers sign up directly with them.  Spotify, for example, takes in 100% of the billions in ad revenue, and 100% of the revenue from customers who don't go through the App store, even though Apple subsidizes the Spotify App for free for the vast majority of Spotify subscribers.

    As you read up on this topic, you'll also learn that Apple has already put $150 BILLION dollars into the pockets of developers around the world through the App store, and every single one of these developers sat down and decided to make an iOS App knowing that if they wanted access to a BILLION customers around the planet where Apple would take care of every aspect of screening the customers, billing, etc., that they were going to have to pay an annual $99 developer fee, and that if they wanted to sell digital goods via the App, they were going to have to pay Apple a commission of 15 or 30%.  


    edited June 2019 stompy
  • Reply 26 of 57
    BxBornBxBorn Posts: 74member
    LenardH said:
    Everything for nothing, the cost of doing business, god forbid developers had to pay rent for a brick building......$99/year and free advertising in the App Store...
    Rent would be the 30% that Apple takes, the $99 would be luxury tax charged by the building simply for allowing you to live there.
  • Reply 27 of 57
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    spice-boy said:
    You guys are really too much. Always seeing every story through Apple's eyes and never considering in this case a small developer trying to get their business off the ground. 
    Let me turn this around, "What's $99 to a corporation valued at 1 Trillion dollars?"
    And wannabe coder and whiners like you, growing up on an Internet where you expect everything to be free is laughable.

    You have zero clue what real world retail incurs.  What Apple charges is chump change.  You should be thankful that a company like Apple made it so easy to get into the game.  

    But no, you take.

    Go back to playing Frappy Bird. 
    mwhitedhawkins541wlymwatto_cobra
  • Reply 28 of 57
    Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 29 of 57
    mike1mike1 Posts: 3,275member
    "Throughout its availability in the App Store, Mr. Cameron has priced his app at $2.99," says the suit. "If, however, Mr. Cameron could have priced his app at above zero but below $.99, he might well have done so, in order to attempt to capture volume sales."

    That statement makes no sense.
    $0.99 is too expensive to drive volume, but selling at $2.99 works!?
    wlymwatto_cobra
  • Reply 30 of 57
    titantigertitantiger Posts: 300member
    deminsd said:
    larryjw said:
    If you can't afford $99 developer fee, you're not in the business of making a profit. At best, you have a hobby not a profession.
    Not the point.  Apple has a monopoly over app distribution and the 30% piece of the pie is what is the "profit killer".  Not many businesses can take a 30% cut on profit.
    If you sell your items through Walmart, Target, or other big retailers, they take a cut.  It's called "selling it to them wholesale" and it typically adds up to more than 30% of the retail price.  

    Apple doesn't have a monopoly over app distribution.  You can offer your app on Android only, but Google will take its cut too.  Yes, you can sell it on your own website without their App Store if people are willing to side load apps, but your volume won't be anywhere near what it would have been if it was in Google Play store.  There are tradeoffs to using someone else's store front, someone else's easy pay structure and so on.  The devs want all the benefits and none of the tradeoffs and it's bullshit.

    And finally, the quoted post is right.  If you can't make more than $99 in profit a year, you have a cute past time, not a serious business worthy of the claims in this lawsuit.
    chickwatto_cobra
  • Reply 31 of 57
    BxBornBxBorn Posts: 74member
    I think the point is more around Apple abusing the fact that iOS apps can not be distributed anywhere else. It would be different if there were one or two other places an app developer could go but they can't and because of that Apple is charging a 'where else are you going to go tax". Does Apple charge 3rd party vendors who's products are sold in-stores on online a similar fee? Does Incase have to pay a shelf fee and a percentage of its sales to Apple? (honest question, I really don't know)
  • Reply 32 of 57
    Okay, let's go back to what Metrowerks Code Warrior cost, an earlier Mac development environment. Trust me, you won't mind $99. 

    Or Apple could make the Developer program free, and charge $99 for Xcode. That better? 

    Didn't think so... 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 33 of 57
    wd4fsuwd4fsu Posts: 28member
    larryjw said:
    deminsd said:
    larryjw said:
    If you can't afford $99 developer fee, you're not in the business of making a profit. At best, you have a hobby not a profession.
    Not the point.  Apple has a monopoly over app distribution and the 30% piece of the pie is what is the "profit killer".  Not many businesses can take a 30% cut on profit.
    Everybody can afford Apple taking a 30% cut -- just raise your price to cover your costs + profit. I think those calculations are taught in 5th grade.
    Apparently they aren't taught everywhere.  ;-)
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 34 of 57
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    Remember the days when you wanted to sell your software, you have to buy ad space in some commuter or tech mag or spend money on a trade show booth in various cities around the world, you had to get on planes, trains and automobiles to get in front of people who maybe interest in your product, Then you had to hire people to design your shrink wrap packaging, hire someone to help market your software to distributors who would turn around and get it placed in big box store of the time all which giving everyone in the value chain a cut of the what the product finally sold to the end users. In the mean time you had to spend the money you were left to set up call center to support your customers when they had issues.

    If this does go to court these guys would be surprised to find out how much money Apple spends to offer these developers software to the wide verity of customers around the  world wide. These dingalings have no clue what it takes if they had to do it all themselves and if they think they can have their own store that somehow allows people to load software onto the phone and people will find it they are open to a rude awakening.

    I beat these developer see the $100B Apple paid out over the last 10 yrs and asking themselves why they are not rich, oh its the $99 they have to pay to play. Yeah it is the mean Apple keeping them from being successful one $99 payment at a time.

    Welcome to the age that everyone must be given to you free, no one wants to pay for anything, and they expect the government to fix their inability to be as good at the next guy so they want the next guy knock down so they do not have to learn how to compete. Welcome to the cupcake and everyone gets a trophy generations. 
    edited June 2019 watto_cobra
  • Reply 35 of 57
    titantigertitantiger Posts: 300member
    BxBorn said:
    I think the point is more around Apple abusing the fact that iOS apps can not be distributed anywhere else. It would be different if there were one or two other places an app developer could go but they can't and because of that Apple is charging a 'where else are you going to go tax". Does Apple charge 3rd party vendors who's products are sold in-stores on online a similar fee? Does Incase have to pay a shelf fee and a percentage of its sales to Apple? (honest question, I really don't know)
    Incase sells their items to Apple at wholesale, which is likely somewhere around 50% off the retail price.  Ask any software or accessory vendor if they'd rather pay Apple $99 a year and give only a 30% discount off MSRP and see if they don't jump at it.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 36 of 57
    spice-boyspice-boy Posts: 1,450member
    nasserae said:
    spice-boy said:
    You guys are really too much. Always seeing every story through Apple's eyes and never considering in this case a small developer trying to get their business off the ground. 
    Let me turn this around, "What's $99 to a corporation valued at 1 Trillion dollars?"
    At least $100 million a year?! (Assuming 1 million of the 20 million registered developers account are paying). 
    And if Apple did not have developers? I'm old enough to remember when developers were leaving Apple's sinking ship, a lot of good apps moved to Windows and Apple's days were numbered. What good is the best hardware in the world if you can't do anything with it. 
  • Reply 37 of 57
    jimh2jimh2 Posts: 611member
    deminsd said:
    larryjw said:
    If you can't afford $99 developer fee, you're not in the business of making a profit. At best, you have a hobby not a profession.
    Not the point.  Apple has a monopoly over app distribution and the 30% piece of the pie is what is the "profit killer".  Not many businesses can take a 30% cut on profit.
    Have you ever run a store and seen the markup? A 70% margin is a dream come true.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 38 of 57
    jimh2jimh2 Posts: 611member

    spice-boy said:
    You guys are really too much. Always seeing every story through Apple's eyes and never considering in this case a small developer trying to get their business off the ground. 
    Let me turn this around, "What's $99 to a corporation valued at 1 Trillion dollars?"
    The classic argument of "they should just give it away because they can afford to". If only starting any business was just $99. They handle every aspect of each sale and give your apps massive exposure and a friction free purchasing experience to your customers.

    Apple's cash, inventory, buildings, supplies, data warehouses and everything else they "own" does not belong to them. They belong to the shareholders.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 39 of 57
    mwhitemwhite Posts: 287member
    spice-boy said:
    nasserae said:
    spice-boy said:
    You guys are really too much. Always seeing every story through Apple's eyes and never considering in this case a small developer trying to get their business off the ground. 
    Let me turn this around, "What's $99 to a corporation valued at 1 Trillion dollars?"
    At least $100 million a year?! (Assuming 1 million of the 20 million registered developers account are paying). 
    And if Apple did not have developers? I'm old enough to remember when developers were leaving Apple's sinking ship, a lot of good apps moved to Windows and Apple's days were numbered. What good is the best hardware in the world if you can't do anything with it. 
    But the ship didn't sink did it? Now Apple is the largest company. And I remember having to go to a store and get applications on a floppy disk and getting it home and it wouldn't work then having to take it back and get a replacement, this is so much easier and in the long run much cheaper I don't ever want to go back to the old days.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 40 of 57
    jimh2jimh2 Posts: 611member
    deminsd said:
    larryjw said:
    If you can't afford $99 developer fee, you're not in the business of making a profit. At best, you have a hobby not a profession.
    Not the point.  Apple has a monopoly over app distribution and the 30% piece of the pie is what is the "profit killer".  Not many businesses can take a 30% cut on profit.
    Developers know the costs going in and need to price their products accordingly. If they can't get to a price that works for them then they either raise it or go out of business. It is not Apple's responsibility to keep any other company in business by subsidizing them. The whole concept is socialism in a nutshell.
    watto_cobra
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