cjlacz

How could you leave out Fingerworks in 2005? It’s touch technology went into the iPhone, iPad and made their trackpad was it is today. Without them touch on the iPhone would have been far worse. I used to own some of their keyboards. Their touch technology was so far beyond anything else at the time. 

There is at least one part of Gruber’s post I disagree with. That’s that the percent reduction should be higher than 3% because that takes into account the real cost of small transactions. He cites Stripe as an example, but from what I’ve seen it seems higher than what a developer could get, depending on sales. 

Apple has probably negotiated with credit card companies for special rates. So that 3% represents the real costs to them. There is no reason they should reduce the cost by 5% to cover the developers cost of using an external processor when their own cost is only 3%. That’s assuming the numbers here are accurate, but I doubt they are too far off. 

Apple also has to support special App Store features only for the Dutch market. Extra employees and processes just to check for and make sure these payments to Apple are being made. It wouldn’t surprise me if they include those extra overhead costs in the amount of discount either. 

[email protected] said:

jayweiss said:

There will be no more FREE Apps. Someone is going to have to pay for the infrastructure that provides developers a storefront where their Apps can be discovered. 

There is no such thing as a free lunch. 

Doubtful. Free apps are a big part of what makes the AppStore appealing. 
If these will have to start paying many will just leave and users will have to use their website.
Then even more developers will not think it worth the trouble, and money, to be on the AppStore.
This downward spiral might force Apple's take to go below break-even.
Then what?

Free apps exist because of how the App Store makes money. It’s a little bit Robin Hood style. The big developers do pay more and cover some of the costs, but that allows free app to exist. Without the current system (and maybe there is one that can replace it, we will see) this is a service that will no longer make economic sense and Apple will have to start charging developers more than the $100 yearly fee. Yes, part of what makes the App Store appealing is the free apps, and big developers also benefit from this. They are going to be killing the feature that made it so successful in the first place. 

The cost of being a developer on the App Store has increased from $100 to $25,000 a year in Korea. You’ll need to upgrade to the new membership. credit for time remaining in your current membership can be applied to the upgrade or you can request a refund. 

Little late for that now. Apple already opened that can of worms (if it is actually a problem) just by announcing it. I'd still kind of like to see this implemented. I think Apple has addressed this as best it can, and governments can mandate that companies scan for this stuff with laws regardless of any prior implementation. Tech has kind of created this problem of sharing these CSAM photos easily. I'd like to see them as part of the solution too.