
John Gruber on Apple’s 30% cut: To the victor goes the pricing power - lotusleaf1987
http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/03/john-gruber-on-apples-30-cut-to-the-victor-goes-the-pricing-power/
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dreamux
Apple pioneered a new sales and marketing pipeline, and gave it extremely low
barriers to adoption for both consumers and developers. None of apple's
competitors have been able to produce a competing service (based on community
size), and until that happens apple will see no competitive pricing pressure
to reduce their fees.

The cost to run in apple's app store probably won't stay at 30% forever, but
won't change until it faces real competition.

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beej71
I don't think there's much reason for them to change it even with competition.
If publishers threaten to drop them as a target, then they'll change it. And
that threat has more to do with market share than anything else.

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GHFigs
It's extremely refreshing to read something regarding one of Apple's unpopular
moves that isn't laced with fanboyism of one stripe or another.

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chromablue78
Please tell me my sarcasm meter is broken. It must be, for you to claim an
article discussing John Gruber defending Apple as not being fanboyism.

When was the last time Gruber wrote something negative about Apple? My best
guess is probably July 8, 1997, the day before Amelio was shown the door...

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pohl
The headline for this article mentions Gruber, but the article is actually at
niemanlab.org. Perhaps it is the actual linked article GHFigs was referring
to?

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zach
So the New York Times deserves the best deal in the App Store because they're
such a big company with a great brand?

That puts a different spin on "to the victor goes the pricing power."

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Silhouette
I suppose I can accept the capitalist argument that Apple is the big player
with control of the game, so short of monopoly abuse they get to set the
rules.

However, they do seem to adopt rather hostile policies toward the people who
put the real value into their ecosystems, mainly the app store developers and
content publishers. The good will of these communities has a lot of value,
which a brand like Apple relies on. I won't have much sympathy if either or
both communities abandon Apple platforms on a large scale if the alternatives
evolve a similar level of functionality and more provider-friendly pricing and
support policies.

Then again, in the mobile space, the "competition" appears to be organisations
like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and RIM, all of which have serious problems of
their own. Until at least one of them gets their act together, or something
remarkable happens built on some disruptive new platform, I doubt the Apple
execs are going to be losing much sleep. I expect they can get away with the
cash grab for long enough to be worthwhile, even if it does cause them a PR
headache with developers that requires some pain to fix if and when there is
more effective competition.

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cma
Gruber has been getting nervous; Jobs hasn't praised him by name recently.

