Apple halves app store fees for smaller developers

[HEXUS]

Those making <$1m per annum will only pay 15 per cent commission from 2021.

Read more.

[3dcandy]

And those developers are less than 5% of the earnings from the app store....
Not really the great offer it first appears

[Tabbykatze]

It started to look like a good thing, then you realise how quick you can get to a $1 million turnover via the store.

One app with a yearly $10 subscription will be met with 100,000 users which would mean your would have to make an app that ascribes to the needs/enjoyment of less than 0.01% of the total user base of the Apple app store.

If you want to make money from your app, you'll be curtailed pretty quick.

i also don't like that they immediately go "you earned $1 million, game over" so you immediately go from earning $850k on $999,999 to $700k on $1 million, at least that's the indication. I would have rathered this been based on a yearly rotation, if you earn more than $1 million, every dollar after than million is 30%. Bit like income tax, less of a kick in the teeth then.

[LSG501]

And those developers are less than 5% of the earnings from the app store....
Not really the great offer it first appears

It's not a great offer if you look at the small print too, but the 'apple fans' will lap it up and say it's a win versus epic etc... it's their usual PR to make them out to be the good guys when it's more about being self serving.

All I've seen of late from Apple when it comes to the app store, payment processing and their subscription models is them doing everything they can to prevent better and/or alternative options coming into their walled garden. They've already said 'services' are their next major revenue stream and they're basically relying on iOS (and expect os-x on arm in the future) to get it.

Funnily enough this 'reduction' for small developers isn't going to affect the main companies (like spotify, epic, microsoft and google even) that have an issue with their policies... and lets be honest if they can charge 15% for smaller companies they can charge the same for bigger companies, it's a percentage not a fixed fee so they'd still get more from the bigger companies than the small companies but they can't do that as it would impact their profits too much. They'll lose 5% from the 95% of companies this affects but said companies might make more apps or lower prices which in turn might actually make them more money....

i also don't like that they immediately go "you earned $1 million, game over" so you immediately go from earning $850k on $999,999 to $700k on $1 million, at least that's the indication. I would have rathered this been based on a yearly rotation, if you earn more than $1 million, every dollar after than million is 30%. Bit like income tax, less of a kick in the teeth then.

Supposedly done on previous years earnings too from what I'm seeing elsewhere, so you could go one year at say 999,999, the next year 2mil and the third year at 10,000... first two years would be 15% and third year 30%.... in all honesty it's not been explained very well from what I'm seeing, which kind of makes it feel rushed out...

[FRISH]

And those developers are less than 5% of the earnings from the app store....
Not really the great offer it first appears

While not useful to companies that are probably already raking it in, I still think this is a great change for the little man. Most people seemed to hate on Epic for being greedy, but they likely had an impact on this happening. Though of course this won't be much use to Epic games.

That said, I do think Apple is a bad company that tries to do just enough to diffuse situations.

[rave_alan]

Apple is doing something good.Sure it will kick the development of the new apps, and everyone will win.

[MarkI]

Really good for those affected. Agreed on Apples tendency to do the bare minimum in these situations. They needed to do something after making life so difficult for developers who made progressive web apps

[excalibur1814]

"Apple halves app store fees for smaller developers" - For now!

[Crowls]

Quite a cunning approach to split the opposition.

[John_Amstrad]

Quite a cunning approach to split the opposition.

I would write the same thing. And it isn't a surprise move, think M1.