Comments on: Financial Times finds life outside the App Store pretty good so far http://gigaom.com/2011/09/22/financial-times-finds-life-outside-the-app-store-pretty-good-so-far/ Wed, 22 May 2013 20:38:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Peter Deep http://gigaom.com/2011/09/22/financial-times-finds-life-outside-the-app-store-pretty-good-so-far/#comment-657558 Fri, 23 Sep 2011 06:48:45 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=410032#comment-657558 Think about what you are saying. No matter what store sells your product, no matter what it is, the store owner is going to mark up the price of your product. That’s how they make money and stay in business. I don’t know why people assume Apple should provide a store that has no way to make money. Apple takes 30% (low for a retail store) to provide visibility to your app to millions of people all over the world, to provide fast, easy and risk-free credit card processing, and a slew of other benefits. If you put your product in Best Buy or Wal-Mart, do you think you’d make 100% of the price on the shelf? Do you think that when you buy a CD on Amazon or a book on Barnes and Noble, that 100% of that money goes to the record or book company? Don’t be naive. Why would anyone in the world expect anyone to have a store that doesn’t make any money. I mean really, what would make you even think that makes sense?

]]> By: Hamranhansenhansen http://gigaom.com/2011/09/22/financial-times-finds-life-outside-the-app-store-pretty-good-so-far/#comment-657545 Fri, 23 Sep 2011 05:28:04 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=410032#comment-657545 Apple’s policy has nothing to taking a cut or giving an endorsement. It is 100% about the users of iOS devices not having to reach for their credit card every 2 minutes as they use apps, which is an experience that is already available on the World Wide Web. Many App Store features are specifically designed to be an alternative for the Web.

If you want to run in the user’s native app environment, it is not too much for the user to ask you to let them pay with their 1-click iTunes account which is available in that environment. The fact is, users like that so much, that even after you give up 30% to Apple, you still make more money than you would on the Web, where nobody wants to pay for anything, and where the reaching for the credit card is a hurdle that is very hard to get the user to overcome.

]]> By: Michael W. Perry http://gigaom.com/2011/09/22/financial-times-finds-life-outside-the-app-store-pretty-good-so-far/#comment-657511 Fri, 23 Sep 2011 01:54:35 +0000 http://gigaom.com/?p=410032#comment-657511 Their success isn’t surprising. Apple’s arguments in favor of giving it a 30% cut seemed to assume its endorsement added that much value. That’s hardly the case, particularly with anyone older than fourteen. People subscribe to the Financial Times or the Economist because of the quality of their content, not because of any Apple branding.

–Michael W. Perry, author of Untangling Tolkien

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