Quote:
Originally Posted by SharkLaser
Why would you base an entire business on hoping Apple continues to allow you to profit from their platform for free?
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Because generally speaking, that's how platforms work.
If you develop apps for Windows, OS X, and Android -- and even Linux -- there are always risks that whoever controls the platform might do something that will completely screw your business model.
In most cases though, the developer can survive if the platform controller changes something that breaks your app. Every once in awhile they try to drive you out of business instead; e.g. Microsoft vs Netscape, Google updates Android frequently, Apple coming up with apps that compete with Adobe and blocking out Flash from iOS, etc etc.
This is just a different form of screwage, in that Apple demands 30% of the revenues for payment processing and delivery, without being completely clear on whether work-arounds will be tolerated.
I do have to say that I'm not sure how much a competing service or in-house would charge/cost for those services, I just know it's not free. It might have cost iFlow 5%, 10% or 15% of revenues to do that in-house.
I'm also unclear on something. It appears their ebook store sold ePub with ADE. Why couldn't they just keep the store open, work around Apple's cut, and port to Android? Android development is a bit more complex, but it's a sizable platform now.
I'm not sure how they'd survive with non-agency pricing either. Let's say they pay $5 for the ebook "wholesale," sell it for $10, that gives them a 50% cut. Amazon then slashes its price to $7.50; iFlow is forced to cut the price to $7, which results in.... an effective payment rate to the publisher of 70%. Did they genuinely believe they could undercut Amazon, Apple and B&N on price?