>Apple/Google, who leverage OS API control into a tax on all activity, do nothing and get $1.50.
Except they offer you a channel for distribution, discoverability, promotion, rating and monetization of your app.
On Android you don't have to serve your app over Google Play you can distribute .apk file elsewhere and pay 0% fee but on iOS unfortunately you can not do that.
You don't. It's $25 to publish on Google Play; you can share a *.apk with whomever you wish.
On iOS, on the other hand, it's $99/yr if you even want to run your own code on your own device. And you have to 'provision' your friends' devices if you want to share with them. It's extortion, it's stupid, it's immoral.
If you want to deploy and iOS app, then you definitely have to. So long as Apple is vertically integrated from hardware to OS to marketplace and it's a 100% walled garden, they will effectively be charging developers a tax to do anything. The fact that they charge a tax on top of all that is what I take offense to. Especially since Google lets anyone make Android phones, lets you develop on any platform and install from any source. And access to publish to their app store is a one-time fee of $25.
Google Play store has a 25$ one-time fee. Much more affordable IMHO than 99$ annual fee. If I am being charged a 99$ fee, I simply can't share my creation without finding a way to make money off of my users. That isn't easy. Future hobbyists will be created on non-Apple platforms.
Your reasoning is faulty. There is no Android platform fee for app developers. In fact, alternative Android stores pay no fees at all. The Play Store has fees, and there's a dispute about them, but that doesn't make it analogous to the situation on iOS, which really has an iOS platform fee because it's impossible to install native code on the device you ostensibly own without Apple's ongoing permission.
No, it is not true. You must pay to release any app on either store. Google charges a one-time $25 fee, Apple charges $100 per year.
You may release a free app with no advertisements. In fact, that is the easiest configuration, since charging for the app means setting up payment information. And including ads means payment information and integrating ad serving code into your app. It is not "built in" on either platform.
only if you want to release your app on Apple's platform; you're free to release it on Android, Windows, Linux, Unreal, etc., each of which has their own set of fees (or none)
Maybe my app is too simple, but I have had no issues with developing for, submitting, and shipping downloads (with infrequent updates) in the Apple app store.
Honestly, the major annoyance is paying $120/year while Google only charges a one-time $25, but it is what it is.
> enable "developer mode" without paying a subscription fee just to run your own app on your own device
Apple actually doesn’t charge a fee for this. You can build an app in Xcode and install it on your own device. You can’t distribute that app publicly though.
> G execs were in the position of having to buy off people
There’s your answer - having a monopoly is not problem, abusing it is.
So the developer of a free app used by 100 people should pay the same fee for app store distribution as the developer of a $10 app used by 50m people all over the world?
Wait, am I understanding correctly that Apple and Google actually charge developers money to produce the content that Apple and Google monetize on their app stores?
App Store & Google Play charging this fee is like Google charging your website in order to show up in Google results. The app stores are not great due to their investments, they are great due to the awesome apps developers have built
Apple allows developers to distribute their apps on MacOS “for free”, so I’m not sure why asking for similar treatment on iOS is considered such a bizarre, insane request.
Except they offer you a channel for distribution, discoverability, promotion, rating and monetization of your app.
On Android you don't have to serve your app over Google Play you can distribute .apk file elsewhere and pay 0% fee but on iOS unfortunately you can not do that.
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