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Comment by fierarul | Hacker News Reader

Heh, there was a comment the other day asking "what could you do on Mac that you can't do on Windows" and I wanted to reply: "well you could get an $99 dev account and have apple sell your stuff world wide".

I guess Windows is getting an AppStore too...

I'm curious though how will Microsoft handle this. In terms of internal bureaucracy and support for non-US developers. It seems that except Apple, nobody (not even Google with the Android marketplace) got this right.

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well you could get an $99 dev account and have apple sell your stuff world wide

Maybe this is true for the Mac App Store but it certainly isn't (anymore) for the iOS App Store. Even though Apple's hosting your app, the massive barrage of existing items in the app store means you have to find ways to sell it yourself.

So it's still easier for people to find and buy your app than it was before the App Store - and you still have to do the same marketing that you would have without the App Store.

What's the problem?

No problem. I'm just pointing out that you still have to work hard at marketing to get your app noticed. The original comment I replied to made it seem like Apple takes care of that for you. On the iOS store that's not really true anymore, that's all. I agree with what you said.

Ah, that makes sense! Sorry.

I'm not talking about the App Store from a marketing point of view.

I'm talking about the App Store as a world-wide, easy to use credit card processor.

It is non-trivial (technically, legally) to implement credit card handlind yourself, especially the further you are from the US. Also, people will never trust a small player as much as they trust Apple.

So, Apple takes care of a lot of international red tape for you, for $99/year.

$99/year and 30% of your income. Don't forget that.

True, but it still might be worth it due to the market size.

I guess after a point the AppStore becomes expensive and it might be worth it to sell your own stuff and keep the 30%.

But $99 is a really low barrier to entry for non-US individuals and companies to sell software to the whole globe.

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