
Google one-ups Apple with 5 percent payment fee - evo_9
http://venturebeat.com/2011/05/11/google-chrome-web-store-payments/
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marcell
When people talk about Apple's 30% cut, and when competitors try to undercut
Apple, I always wonder whether 30% is justified. It seems like a lot, but
think about what Apple is bringing to the table: not just the infrastructure
and staff behind the App Store and the App review process, but the mountains
of money they've spent marketing and developing the iPhone and iPad. How do
you account for that? There wouldn't _be_ an App Store without those products,
and there wouldn't be those products without Apple.

And on a more practical note, at the end of the day, percents can be what they
may, but what I care about is the total money I get for my app. Dollars pay
bills and buy food, not percents =D.

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masklinn
For something which has no relation with any service Apple provides.

Call when they do that on Android Market, then we'll talk. Apple does not yet
have a store for web pages.

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patrickaljord
OS X has its own app store now, so this can be compared to Chrome OS webstore.

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r00fus
I'd disagree. People consider web-apps (of which the most popular are
Facebook, GMail, etc) to be free... Google is competing with the web, not
against native binary App Stores.

I think most people understand that the Mac App Store competes with other
native-software online stores as well as with brick & mortar stores... the
business model of payment for native binaries is well understood.

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alanfalcon
Google isn't offering exclusive native access to a platform and isn't hosting
content... they're simply offering payment processing and a storefront. 5%
_is_ nice, but can't be compared legitimately with Apple's 30% cut.

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illumin8
Technically, Apple takes a 0% cut for web applications delivered through
Safari to iOS devices. You can easily bookmark them with a shortcut icon on
your home screen.

So, I would say the title is misleading. 5% does seem like a fair cut for
handling payment processing and storefront, but it's not like Apple is
charging anything for access to a web app. They're just not providing a
storefront to do it with.

~~~
patrickaljord
It does host the .crx extension files which can be pretty huge for games that
work offline, which represents most games on the webstore.

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cosgroveb
Does anyone else think it would have been brilliant for the Android ecosystem
if they could have beat Apple's 30% cut with the Android Market?

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roc
Only if you're working from the theory that a lower cut would've translated to
lower prices, and users aren't buying Android software because prices are too
high.

As users generally don't even think about, let alone make buying decisions
about, who's getting what cut of the $2 price of a video game or the $7 price
of some ebook, I don't think it would have mattered.

~~~
cosgroveb
You don't think Google taking a lower cut on the Market wouldn't incentivize
more of the successful iOS developers to take Android more seriously? You
don't think anyone would say, "hmm, if I develop this for Android, they are
only taking 10% rather than 30%, maybe I should give it a shot."

With higher quality apps on the Market, Android owners might be more willing
to fork over money for them.

~~~
roc
> _"You don't think Google taking a lower cut on the Market wouldn't
> incentivize more of the successful iOS developers to take Android more
> seriously"_

Not really. I think the teams that were going to branch out largely did and
still do. And from the results we keep hearing, I don't think a smaller cut is
going to change any minds of those who decided against it.

As to more good for-pay apps leading to more purchasing, I don't know that
would necessarily follow. Particularly not after the Angry Birds experience
seemed to suggest direct sales weren't even that great for a game at the level
of a cultural phenomenon.

~~~
cosgroveb
What experience would that be? To my knowledge, Rovio still has not released a
paid version of Angry Birds although it has been planned since February at
least.

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roc
I seem to be misremembering. I thought there were two versions at launch, with
the paid version going away quickly in favor of ad-driven.

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raganwald
Others have noted that this is not an exact analogue to the App Store.
Nevertheless, the thing that strikes me about this is that a lower percentage
is not that interesting.

If Apple need to lower their cut to keep developers on board, they can. They
have "economies of scale" when it comes to developer mindshare just as they
have economies of scale when buying screens and RAM. They'd rather not, of
course, but they can.

Far more interesting is when the price crosses the Rubicon to free, as Google
has done with Android. A business model that doesn't rely on charging money is
disruptive. Can Apple go all the way to free? Maybe not.

~~~
r00fus
Considering Apple makes an order of magnitude more money on the devices than
the software, I bet Apple could even do better than free if they saw the need.

However, it goes against their core philosophy and company strengths. Apple
will only go there if they are pressed to do so.

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endergen
Is that true? I was under the impression that that's changing. But I could see
that, it would take a lot of paid apps to compare to the margins on hardware
sales.

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macrael
Twice, Apple has said publicly that they are running the store at "just above
break even."

From last year:
[http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/01/26/app_store_wild...](http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/01/26/app_store_wildly_successful_but_not_hugely_profitable_for_apple.html)

and February:
[http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple_app_store_runs_...](http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple_app_store_runs_just_above_break_even/)

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guywithabike
Google doesn't host your content on the Chrome app store.

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WesleyJohnson
And Apple does? Apple hosts and distributes your apps, yes, but you still need
to have additional content/features (global high scores, etc) hosted somewhere
else. How is this different from Chrome App Store? If you build a true
packaged app, Google's App Store will host it, won't they?

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pornel
Also Apple charges $99/year for hosting (they don't call it hosting fee, but
if you stop paying, they'll stop hosting your app).

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lurch_mojoff
No they don't. If you don't renew your ADC membership Apple won't pull your
apps from the store.

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allenbrunson
That is false. If you let your iOS dev credentials lapse, Apple will indeed
remove your apps from the store. I saw it happen to a guy I know. He wrote one
game, it didn't sell at all, he didn't renew, so his app dropped out of the
store.

