

Game makers says Amazon’s Android appstore terms are greedy - shawndumas
http://venturebeat.com/2011/04/14/game-makers-says-amazons-android-appstore-terms-are-greedy/

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samgro
It would be interesting if app stores worked like retail stores. Developers
sell apps to the store at their desired price, and the app store sells it to a
customer, usually with an added markup of 30%. If Amazon wants to sell a
popular app as a loss leader Walmart style, they are free to do that without
screwing the developer.

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jimmybot
That would leave app makers susceptible to a major player with large amounts
of capital that can sell at a loss until all other players are driven from the
market and then raise its prices once it has gained pricing power.

Book publishers appear to have wizened to Amazon's game here and have refused
to allow Amazon to use discounts to drive other sellers out of business. Many
publishers have moved to an agency model where Amazon takes 30% _and_ the
publishers set the retail price of the books.

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statictype
Something I'm missing here:

Amazon will either pay the developer 70% of the actual purchase price (which
is set by Amazon) or 20% of the listed price (set by the developer), whichever
is _higher_.

So what's to stop a developer from listing the game at $100 and letting Amazon
figure out for itself, what a more sensible price should be (and then
collecting $20 which would be higher than
0.7*whatever_price_amazon_finally_sets)?

Will Amazon reject apps on the basis of the listed price?

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danshapiro
I believe that is allowed, but:

\- You can't sell it anywhere else. Amazon requires that you give them the
best pricing on the app, ever. Per the article, if you even list it for a day
on sale for $0.99, you have to price it in Amazon for that amount forever.

\- Pricing is at amazon's discretion. So they'll price it at $28.57, you'll
get $20 when your mom buys it, and nobody else will.

\- The big win is if you get offered for free, since then a ton of people
download you and you still get 20% of your purchase price. That will never
happen to you, since the "who gets featured" algorithm appears to be people-
making-decisions based.

Side note: this model is excruciatingly bad for apps that have per-user costs
to the developer. If, for example, you plan for the average $0.99 user to use
$0.25 of server storage and CPU, and amazon decides to give your app away, you
may wind up in the hole.

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neuroelectronic
Build your own App store?

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greyfade
Given how well the Humble indie Bundles have done in the past (and how the
current one is doing), I think their concerns over pricing are a bit
overblown.

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exit
you're going to have to spell this thought out for me. i don't see how some
middleman taking 80% is redeemed by the success of "humble indie bundles".

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stumm
What middleman is taking 80%?

