Apple allows “free apps” that are entirely ad-supported, never giving Apple a dime (aside from $99/year), yet they are consuming infrastructure: hosting pages, downloads, reviewer time, etc. Why isn’t Apple concerned about any of those costs? Simple: they make overwhelmingly most of their App Store money from the handful of developers that offer purchases. This also leads to perverse outcomes like Apple dragging its feet on scams that make them heaps of money.
Developers are literally subsidizing other developers, and it’s not necessarily the richest ones helping the poorest ones. Someone trying to make money on a $0.99 app is sacrificing more to Apple than Facebook does with their free app.
That’s why I find all these percentage and payment discussions weird: income is so insanely distributed that a lot of this literally does not apply to more than 80% of the stuff on the store. There are fundamental issues that need to be resolved too.
Developers are literally subsidizing other developers, and it’s not necessarily the richest ones helping the poorest ones. Someone trying to make money on a $0.99 app is sacrificing more to Apple than Facebook does with their free app.
That’s why I find all these percentage and payment discussions weird: income is so insanely distributed that a lot of this literally does not apply to more than 80% of the stuff on the store. There are fundamental issues that need to be resolved too.