First Ring Daily 915: Paris of The East

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On this episode of First Ring Daily, regulation is hot, Apple has an event, and SharePoint is a topic too.

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  • bkkcanuck

    07 October, 2020 - 11:40 am

    <p>I partially agree with you on this item. The 'platform' for the store is not completely 'payed for', but it unlikely requires a 30% charge to maintain them. I do like the idea of a 'negotiated' limit / minimum for the store though (when the store is pre-installed and the store is the only general store allowed on the device):</p><p><br></p><p>I would think that 15% would be sufficient, 20% maximum to continue making the store make business sense (my guesstimate without visibility would be that it would be close to 10% to be break even). </p><p><br></p><p>So what are the possible costs:</p><ul><li>credit card charges (2% on the low end, 3% on the high end – potentially a little more for small purchases since there may be a minimum fee).</li><li>92.5% of all apps on the App Store are free – so there is a cost for review with minimum income from those apps. (other then the annual $100 fee) [so partially offset by $2 Billion / year in developer fees]</li><li>The vast majority of apps that are paid for are small ticket items (so minimum transaction charges may apply).</li><li>There is an infrastructure that is available to developers for things that are available to submit and validate apps during development and the network for pushing messages, development tools, and betas (I believe the equivalent MSDN subscription back in the day for me was in the thousands per year — including betas; pro development tools etc.). </li><li>All apps (free or paid) are updated and have to be screened by Apple many many times per year (based on the observation of how many times apps are updated for me) – I don't have any idea of the metrics. That requires a balance in development of AI systems to help staff and many people who have to do reviews for anything the system has issues with (potentially all apps have to be reviewed by one person — i.e. assisted learning AI). </li></ul><p><br></p><p>I could easily see this adding up to 10% of all revenues. </p><p><br></p><p>Now the balance is that any closed store environment that allows 3rd party developers but does not allow 3rd party app stores – should have a limit (same as for loans etc.)… and that I would guess could be maybe 20%/10% or 15%/10%. This would require further gathering of information from all those affected (Apple, Google, Microsoft, Sony etc.) – i.e. financial submissions in which they have to submit detailed accounting information under penalty for false information. </p><p><br></p><p>There should also be some contractual information on what is allowed on the store (and no discrimination on apps – i.e. Apple and 3rd parties would have to meet the same requirements). This information should be transparent and there should be a transparent process for approval (i.e. something binding which if violated could allow for legal remedies [arbitration by court or equivalent] (this would cost something as well – which possibly could add to the cost of the store). </p><p><br></p><p>(Something that I don't think Apple does, which were problematic for Microsoft – what I considered their worst offense) The APIs used by the company for their apps should be public APIs for all. </p><p><br></p><p>Maybe something in the line with what you indicated for small developers where the first $n revenue is free. (maybe the charge could be 20%/10% if they have that and 15%/10% if not). This would considerably shrink the percentage of paying apps to something on the order of at most 3% or 4%. </p><p><br></p><p>The requirements for restricting privacy (like physical stores where the store does not send back a list of customers) and not allowing links in descriptions or references to internal contract issues is reasonable (so is requiring Apples payment processing since Apple collects the money and remits minus commission back to the developer — this is not a separate product). </p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

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