Apple-commissioned study says the App Store is actually good. Apple released the study ahead of Tim Cook's congressional testimony next week.https://t.co/vht2mLGFRt
— Steve Kovach (@stevekovach) July 22, 2020
Distribution through brick-and-mortar retailers was well and truly defunct as the primary means of end-user delivery by the turn of the century.
— Rich Siegel (@siegel) July 22, 2020
The vast majority of Mac software titles were available for purchase and download direct from developers' web sites.
2/2
Again, I was happily — expensively! — buying PalmOS apps for my Treo from websites like Palm InfoCenter (and I believe CrackBerry had their own web-based app store?) prior the iOS App Store.
— Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) July 22, 2020
It was just $30+ an app and the experience was terrible.
Not sure what the cut was.
?
— Matt Garber (@matt_garber) July 22, 2020
The 30% cut is a distraction anyway, which Basecamp also pointed out weeks ago. The real anticompetitive parts are around ridiculous things like not even being allowed to use descriptive text to say “sign up for paid accounts on our website”.
Again with the 30% Apple cut. It’s not the only issue with the App Store.
— Brent Simmons (@brentsimmons) July 22, 2020
But I can’t help thinking about how some of my friends would still have a job at Omni had that cut been actually reasonable.
It’s not the only issue, but it’s not nothing, either.
Here's a likely peek into Apple's testimony next week before the House antitrust panel: it commissioned a study that found its App Store fees are in line with other digital marketplaces. by @kifleswing https://t.co/VxypEgmxPb
— Lauren Feiner (@lauren_feiner) July 22, 2020
They keep saying the App Store changed everything because before you had to sell your apps in CompUSA or whatever. Panic ONLY EXISTS because we could sell apps, direct to consumer, via download, since 1999. The App Store arrived in 2008. Drives me crazy that they ignore this era.
— Cabel (@cabel) July 22, 2020
“Apple releases study defending App Store’s 30% cut ahead of Tim Cook’s congressional testimony next week”https://t.co/BB6Lt4zlTW
— Rene Ritchie (@reneritchie) July 22, 2020
Based on this study (long read but interesting):https://t.co/0iXauhckwf
New: Facing antitrust pressure, Apple has just released a third-party "study" on the fees charged by other online marketplaces.
— Will Oremus (@WillOremus) July 22, 2020
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Apple-funded research finds the App Store's 30% cut is right in line with prevailing rates. https://t.co/t2xfscJYhj
Apple defends its 30% rake-off-the-top of all app sales by arguing that everyone does it. Everyone does not do it — unless you are Facebook, Google, Uber and the other monopoly platforms. By comparison, the car industry earns an average 6% profit margin. https://t.co/Nsi8PxZ7py
— Steve LeVine (@stevelevine) July 22, 2020
‘Apple releases propaganda’ would be a more apt headline. https://t.co/eBxy2p40N7
— Quinn Nelson (@SnazzyQ) July 22, 2020
It's preposterous for Apple to compare the App Store to any other store that is not the sole gate to a platform! You can sell Windows software without the Microsoft Store. You can even side load software on Android. You cannot get software onto the iPhone without the App Store.
— DHH (@dhh) July 22, 2020
a) "Everybody else does it" is not a defense
— Michael Love (@elkmovie) July 22, 2020
b) Brick and mortar is a meaningless comparable
c) Many of these stores were following your lead
d) Most of them are non-exclusive (except consoles, but their business model is selling HW at cost + making money on games) https://t.co/fc228XNMFZ
https://t.co/5IZFeGMu0c
— Rich Siegel (@siegel) July 22, 2020
"Distributing software through an app store is less expensive than distributing through brick-and-mortar retailers."
?
It's a fallacy on the surface. 1/2
More researchers use stores with 30% fees! https://t.co/ULaLrSmRZN pic.twitter.com/umcTmTVNIM
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) July 22, 2020
They just paid some economists to Google the fees that other platforms charge and published it as a PDF. That’s it https://t.co/IXf1cObLIz
— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) July 22, 2020
Yeah, let’s all focus on the 30% Apple cut non-problem.
— Raphael Sebbe ?? (@rsebbe) July 22, 2020
(during that time, all the fundamental App Store issues - business model crippling, unfair competition, search & featuring - can all be silently discarded) https://t.co/JnmDEc7jOH
You can make a pretty good living as an expert witness for hire https://t.co/nuBFAiJ7jf
— nilay patel (@reckless) July 23, 2020
I just commissioned a study that confirmed that I am in fact the fairest king in all of the land.
— DHH (@dhh) July 22, 2020
It's revealing that this spends no time on whether the "other marketplaces" are the exclusive way to get third party software on their home platform.
— Kyle Pflug (@kylealden) July 22, 2020
The Microsoft Store and Steam both have commission, but they also compete with each other (and direct download, and retail...).
Complicated subject I know. Not entirley black and white. But these are the money visuals in Apple's App store report. pic.twitter.com/LC7L2Vu3Xa
— Ben Bajarin (@BenBajarin) July 22, 2020
Apple's 30% is fair, but they should allow consumers to install 3rd party App Stores (perhaps with a setting & disclaimer that you will no longer get Apple support if use them) https://t.co/6oUfW77tJi
— jason@calacanis.com (@Jason) July 22, 2020
This is a good example of corporate misdirection. The problem with Apple's 30% cut isn't that it's 30% but instead they go out of their way to force apps to give them that cut via policies that prevent you from using alternative payments or linking to sitehttps://t.co/qUlPP1yhMb
— Dare Obasanjo (@Carnage4Life) July 22, 2020
Also, if you didn't want to handle payments yourself, Mac shareware developers had Kagi from way back when - I used them to sell my little Mac shareware game Ergo in 1994, rate was 5% + $1.25 I believe.
— Michael Love (@elkmovie) July 22, 2020
Looking forward to reading their op-eds https://t.co/SBZubzGqwK
— Alex Kantrowitz (@Kantrowitz) July 22, 2020
Apple having to pay for studies just to say "see, everybody else who copied our lucrative iTunes model also charges 30%" with no actual devs on their side is not a good look. If Apple learned anything from the Hey ordeal, its that they may have developer partners, but not friends
— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) July 22, 2020
case closed I guess https://t.co/ySpYy7YSah
— Alex Heath (@alexeheath) July 22, 2020
Another Apple-Funded App Store Study: https://t.co/xyVjUyahtO #mjtsaiblog
— Michael Tsai (@mjtsai) July 22, 2020
Marketplace take rates according to study commissioned by Apple.https://t.co/sEtQuS97fm pic.twitter.com/MvcRcHJvnU
— ?️??????????????️ (@schaudenfraud) July 23, 2020
New: Facing antitrust pressure, Apple has just released a third-party "study" on the fees charged by other online marketplaces.
— Will Oremus (@WillOremus) July 22, 2020
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Apple-funded research finds the App Store's 30% cut is right in line with prevailing rates. https://t.co/t2xfscJYhj