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zdw

So, is 30% too much of a cut when the platform offers:

- Credit card processing

- The largest marketplace with the most paying customers

- Download hosting

- Promotion

- Highly available document and key/value store infrastructure

- Keeping junk and malware out of the store, which maintains user trust.

I'd argue that, like most emotionally influence business decisions, Apple sticking with the same percentage is a good thing - witness how the markets vary when things are up in the air politically.

Keeping the same policies for a long time allows businesses to plan appropriately as they know what they're going to get, even if it's not ideal.

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Does anyone believe that the promotion that Apple offers on average is worth two cents?

And what good is a marketplace with some of the worst discovery ever? I mean, there are now hundreds of thousands of apps. Finding high quality apps on the app store is like finding a needle in a Utah sized haystack.

I much rather do my own marketing, have a user download the app off my website or heck, Amazon (which actually has a decent recommendation engine).

And keeping junk out? Have you seen most of the apps? I mean the number of them that haven't been updated in years is staggering. The number that are essentially clones churned out by some make-an-app framework is ridiculous. The signal-to-noise ratio on the app store is awful.

Credit card processing? Not having to do anything is worth 4-5%.

> Does anyone believe that the promotion that Apple offers on average is worth two cents?

I do. I made a couple small and quick apps. They have made several hundred dollars. I attribute that almost entirely to Apple's promotion of them, mostly by having them show up in iTunes search results which Apple promotes. Also having them show up as recent releases.

My promotion consisted of linking them on my websites. If that was all it was -- my website links and nothing else -- I think sales would be near zero.

For better apps, Apple's promotion is even more valuable. Definitely no where near 2 cents.

Counting search results as promotion is a stretch.

Not really as Apple made sure searches happen in the first place.

Not sure why you're being voted down. Distribution channels don't just spring out of the ground overnight. Apple's promotion of iTunes and the App Store created a critical mass of users willing and able to spend money, while Apple maintains that by creating mechanisms to satisfy their demand for apps and content.

Because if people are searching for a product, they probably already know about it and it is hard to call that "promotion" unless you squint really hard in which case, Google is offering free promotion to everyone!

"tally clicker"

"weight counter"

"hike mapper"

"vnc client"

People search for solutions to problems as often, or more than, specific apps. Appearing in that lineup is an important opportunity.

The value you get from Apple's promotion has a primarily multiplicative, not additive effect on your existing promotion. Charts, features, recommendations, etc.

Apple helps those who help themselves.

Releasing an app with no marketing plan in place, app store or not, is stupid. It's why there's an incredibly long tail on the 300k or so apps.

If you're an indie developer, you have to remember the actual developing is only half the job.

> Does anyone believe that the promotion that Apple offers on average is worth two cents?

Ask some of the developers[1] of popular apps how much more money they make when the App Store features their app in front-page promotional material. It's a lot.

[1] I believe Marco Arment mentioned this in a Build & Analyse episode a few weeks ago, re: Instapaper.

Agreed. The problem with the app store is that it's generic. If you're not in the featured list you're just one more anonymous tile in a sea of hundreds of thousands of anonymous apps, many of which are throwaway. Marketing on the web might be more work but at least you have the flexibility to do something distinctive. I do appreciate not having to worry about payments & sales etc but I'm sure I've gotten a lot more mileage out of the work I've put into marketing my apps on forums, mailing lists, Twitter etc than I have out of just being another app in the store.

As a dev whose app has been featured once on the front page under "New and Noteworthy", I'd say that Apple's promotion is unquestionably more valuable than any other kind of promotion.

Being reviewed on some site is nice, but it's a negligible rounding error compared to being featured on any list on the App Store. I'm sure any dev who's ever been featured will agree that App Store placement is the biggest single factor in sales.

I don't think the 30% has ever been an issue. The exclusivity is. Doubly so as Apple keeps changing the rules which if you're caught on the wrong side of can destroy your business.

"I don't think the 30% has ever been an issue."

Seriously? The 30% on apps, the 30% on in-app purchases, 30% on subscriptions, etc., each caused an uproar when they were announced.

Not because of the percentage, but because of the exclusivity. 30% on in-app purchases/subscriptions was only a big deal because Apple required that you use it and match the lowest price anywhere else. (They since backed down on this, but they can change their minds again.)

30% on apps caused an uproar because it was so much cheaper than the other alternatives.

Not to come across as an Apple apologist, but seriously, it wasn't even that frickin' long ago... even in internet time.

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it, repeatedly, in online forums, but in a badly twisted and inaccurate version.

What do you mean by the exclusivity? How do you mean it can destroy your business if caught on the wrong side?

You can't distribute an iOS app outside of the App Store (outside of the enterprise). So Apple's 30% fee is essentially a tax on iOS apps--there's not a way around it.

Apple can destroy your business by changing a rule that makes your app ineligible for the App Store (or at least unprofitable, most recently seen in the whole in-app fiasco). There's not a way to distribute outside of Apple, so if Apple doesn't want to distribute your app then you have no business.

That may be a very good deal for some... but what if it's not or the people just want an alternative? If Apple's platform is that good, then there is no reason to lock in people to use only that, devs will flock to it anyway, it can stand on it's own merits. Or Amazon or someone else may come in and offer all of the above + more at only 20% because of their efficiencies (AWS etc.). Not to mention the still ongoing forced 30% of subscriptions fiasco for which Apple does not provide hosting.

There is good reason to not offer alternatives. There will be platform fragmentation, and end up being a worse experience for both developers and users. Devs probably need to publish on all stores to cover their bases, otherwise users need to know which store to buy from or have to search for an app in every single store.

Also, Apple has changed their subscriptions policy: http://www.macrumors.com/2011/06/09/apple-reverses-course-on...

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