Comment by ChrisMarshallNY
2 months ago
Apple's not making any money on developer subscriptions. I suspect they just want to have a velvet rope, to encourage folks to be serious about their work. They don't want farting-around toys. They want developers to ship serious apps.
There'$ a rea$on that $o many people want to relea$e Apple app$. A $uperb rea$on.
It's a really lucrative market. People like to have access to customers that are used to paying a lot. One of the reasons those customers want to pay more, is that walled garden that HN members hate so much, but millions of people have no issue with (whether or not that's a good thing, is not for me to ponder. It just is).
99 bucks is peanuts. It does give you access to the entire suite of Apple tools. Anyone interested in shipping serious software, is likely to far exceed that, in the non-Apple (or Apple hardware) tools that they use to develop the software. Heck, your keyboard probably cost more than that. I remember that we used to pay Microsoft over $4,000 a year for their developer program.
Here's what Apple says about it[0]. That's what I usually do. I think someone else has shared the command line method. If it's a developer tool, then it would probably have a difficult time passing Apple's app review process, anyway, and that will really jangle your cortisol pipes.
[0] https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/open-a-mac-app-from...
> Apple's not making any money on developer subscriptions.
I think we're going to find out in a couple weeks, as Apple will be in court arguing over a reasonable commission to charge developers for using third party payments and their costs and developer subscription revenue are likely to come under a magnifying glass.
> millions of people have no issue with
I think that's a false dichotomy, consumers are not choosing Apple's developer policies and fees, and Apple has gone to great extents to keep consumers ignorant of their fees by banning mention of competing payment options and then burdening them with fees that ensure they can't be cheaper so the fees aren't obvious. This is not a choice consumers have made, it is a choice they have been deprived of.
> I think that's a false dichotomy
If I had been positing it as a developer issue, then that would be true.
However, I was talking about the customer experience, not the developer one. There's no question at all. People pay a premium, and have no issues with the walled garden.
Just because I don't like something, doesn't mean that everyone else shouldn't like it, either. I may not be wrong in my rancor, and they might not be wrong in their acceptance.
One thing that customers are disliking, though, is the buggy and overcomplicated mess that Apple operating systems have become. I am hoping that they do another across-the-board "Snow Leopard" release. From what I hear, that's likely. It might end up making the developer experience a bit more frustrating, though, as they may be demanding more from us.
I've been shipping Apple-based software since 1986, and have found myself screaming with rage at them, many times, in those 40 years; but I never stopped developing for the platform. I guess I'm a walking exemplar of The Stockholm Syndrome.
> However, I was talking about the customer experience, not the developer one. There's no question at all. People pay a premium, and have no issues with the walled garden.
You can't even conclude that since lots of customers are actually suing them for excessive fees, Apple already lost that battle in the UK and are facing the return of billions in IAP fees, they are facing another in NL for nearly €800 million where they are certain to lose because they were ordered to allow third party payments and ignored the court, they are facing a class action in the US that actually predates their injunction ordering them to allow third party payments and their contempt for disobeying.
I don't think people will "pay the premium" when Apple has to allow apps like YouTube to offer a $19/month plan alongside a $25/month plan for exactly the same thing. They have fought this entire decade to prevent that choice and argued it will cost them billions.
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> They don't want farting-around toys. They want developers to ship serious apps.
What users want to install on their own computer is none of apple's business though.
That's entirely against Apple's whole philosophy. You are after all, holding it wrong.