Apple lets devs charge up to $10,000 per app
- Reference: 1670394789
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/12/07/apple_developer_charges_store/
- Source link:
Last August, Apple [1]settled a lawsuit that software developers filed in 2019 alleging the company abused its dominant market position.
Among [2]the settlement terms was a commitment to "Expand the choice of price points for subscriptions, in-app purchases, and paid apps from fewer than 100 to more than 500 (by December 31, 2022)."
[3]
With 25 days to spare, Apple has taken steps to meet that obligation.
[4]
[5]
"Under the updated App Store pricing system, all developers will have the ability to select from 900 price points, which is nearly 10 times the number of price points previously available for most apps," the iPhone maker said in [6]a statement . "This includes 600 new price points to choose from, with an additional 100 higher price points available upon request."
The lowest paid app price now starts at $0.29, down from $0.49 for subscriptions and $0.99 for paid apps. Prices can also now be rounded, so you may see apps for $0.90, $0.95, or $1.00. Apple suggests that may prove appealing when considering how prices will look for app bundles and annual subscription plans.
[7]
The highest price option is $9,999.99 or $10,000 (£8,250) with rounding. And it probably won't be long before a $10,000 iOS app is actually offered as a way to exploit the sadly predictable press coverage that would follow from selling such an expensive app.
We've lived this vapid timeline before. On August 5, 2008, less than a month after Apple launched its iOS App Store, developer Armin Heinrich released "I Am Rich" for $999.99, then the highest price tier allowed.
[8]Epic, Spotify, ProtonMail and pals rise up as one against Apple's 30% cut, call for end to Cupertino-style markets
[9]Apple to bin apps that go three years without updates
[10]Apple sued by French media over App Store power
[11]Apple to raise App Store prices in 28 countries
The app did nothing and described itself as a work of art. Apple removed it from the store on the following day, after six US and two EU sales had been made, resulting in [12]$5,600 for the developer . Apple received $2,400, representing the company's 30 percent commission (since then reduced to [13]15 percent for small businesses ). Alas, two of the buyers evidently had second thoughts and asked for refunds, which they received.
Trying to get attention by selling an app for a few hundred dollars may seem quaint and unambitious at a time when [14]celebrities urge naive investors to set their money alight by converting it to cryptocurrency. But cynical exploitation never really goes out of style. Someone will seek Apple's blessing to ask $10,000 for an app – Twitter Burnt Gold Free Speech Edition, perhaps?
Apple is making the new pricing available today for apps with auto-renewable subscriptions. Paid apps and in-app purchases using the new pricing tiers are expected to be available spring 2023 in 45 currencies across 175 storefronts.
[15]
Developers of subscription apps can also now set a price in a local storefront and have prices in storefronts elsewhere fluctuate based on that single set price. Coming next year, Apple expects to provide a set of tools for setting local territory prices so they don't fluctuate when Apple makes price tweaks in a region based on tax and currency changes.
Apple's newfound price flexibility doesn't address the major concern raised in recent antitrust litigation against the company and by government regulators: A supported way to get iOS apps onto Apple mobile hardware without the App Store, in the form of side-loading (user-loaded apps) or an authorized third-party app store.
Apple in response to calls for greater openness has been insisting that [16]sideloading iOS apps will cause security problems , while conveniently ignoring that macOS allows user-loaded apps. As with its price tier changes, Apple isn't likely to give up its App Store gatekeeping unless forced by the courts or lawmakers. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/27/apple_vs_cameron_et_al_settlement/
[2] https://smallappdeveloperassistance.com/frequently-asked-questions.php
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y5ByUqM6pUGVM3L4FQWEhgAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y5ByUqM6pUGVM3L4FQWEhgAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y5ByUqM6pUGVM3L4FQWEhgAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/12/apple-announces-biggest-upgrade-to-app-store-pricing-adding-700-new-price-points/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y5ByUqM6pUGVM3L4FQWEhgAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/24/app_apple_developers/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/02/apple_store_old_app_policy/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/02/apple_app_monopoly/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/20/apple_raising_app_store_prices/
[12] https://priceonomics.com/how-to-charge-s1000-for-absolutely-nothing/
[13] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/11/apple-announces-app-store-small-business-program/
[14] https://www.reuters.com/legal/ftx-founder-bankman-fried-sued-us-court-over-yield-bearing-crypto-accounts-2022-11-16/
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y5ByUqM6pUGVM3L4FQWEhgAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/14/apple_sideloading/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
[Tim Cook] Hey, Jony! Look at my new app.
[-- shows Jony Ive his phone --]
[Jony Ive] It's just a glowing red ruby above the words 'I am rich'
[TC] Yes, isn't it amazing! And it's *only* available for iOS!
[JI] How much was it?
[TC] Only $10000
{JI] You're an idiot!
[-- TC ignores him and continues to stare lovingly at his phone]
This content was not generated by a robot.
Enthroned upon the porcelain, a thought occurred to me: that new twenty-nine-American-cent tier makes no sense in today's inflation-driven economy but it absolutely DOES when one goes and re-reads that Reg. article on the Internet of Shite[1].
That's fairly clairvoyant of Apple – neigh Jobs-esque! They've seen Stable Diffusion and ChatGTP and GitHub Co-Pilot on the horizon (neigh: already bloody here too soon) and they know the flood is coming. They do not want bucks from it – cents on volume will do.
I follow Deep Learning Twitter[2] and they are not off the money, here. That flood *is* coming and, if you're a small developer with small dollar-apps on the Store, it is coming for *your* lunch. However innovative you may be, if you are small and independent, shere grunt-work can replace your efforts. Perhaps the quality and flair and spark might be lost but the new A.I. Store Barons will have essentially limitless grunt power at their hands and that power will be optimised for marketability and store appeal and click-through rate. Most notably, this will all come sans-scruple and independent devs and creative-types tend to carry those and even occasionally hold Morals.
In this flood, pearls will be lost long before they can even present before the swine; diamonds will be irrelevant in the exponentially-scaled rough.
[1] IoS is definitely Internet of Shite-with-an-E. Of a good dram of Whisk{e}y, one might say, "there's the shit" but, were one to say, "that's properly shite," one's judgement would be conclusively the contrary.
[2] The Bird Site is bad. But, if you're in "tech" and do not follow Deep Learning Twitter – at least lurkingly-passively – you are not doing due diligence. Just note that many of the pioneers and visionaries in the field do rather tend to re-tweet a lot of shite so supressing their re-tweets is advisable.
30%
So 30% tax can fund healthcare, police, army and other public sector organisations, infrastructure, social safety nets.
Apple 30% tax funds convenience of not having to deal with sales taxes across different markets and gate keepers.
30% is excessive and should be no more than 1%. Anything above is profiteering.
Cheaper and safer...
... than many in-vogue NFT, for sure.
Safer because buying "I am Rich" MK (n+1) will actually add something to one's Apple ID – albeit something fatuous – and at least that has some precident for being somewhat secure as a token of "ownership" of digital "properties".
The 30% cut remains iniquitous.