Apple and Google’s tax on developers

“Before Apple sent its iPhone out into the world, anyone with a great idea for a cellphone app had to deal with the carriers — a difficult and time-consuming proposition. Apple simplified the process so a bright high school student could bring an app to market,” David Streitfeld writes for The New York Times.

“What’s a fair price for offering that platform? Apple concluded that it was 30 percent of the price of the app,” Streitfeld writes. “The subscription announcement generated controversy, including assertions that Apple was being shortsighted as well as greedy.”

Streitfeld writes, “Android has indeed become a formidable competitor in terms of the number of devices using that platform. According to new numbers from Gartner, over the last year sales of Android devices doubled to 120 million. Apple’s iOS system, meanwhile, grew 36 percent to 24 million units. In other ways, however – number of downloads, percentage of paid versus free apps — Apple is still the system of choice. That certainly strengthens its hand. But there is another reason why Apple has not reduced its cut: Google is charging the same 30 percent.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “GetMeOnTop” for the heads up.]

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