Google Store...

[Richard Gaskin]

Bob Sneidar wrote:

 > I think if Apple maintains it's position they are going to alienate
 > the major developers.

Agreed, though the major issue here is with content publishers more than 
developers, and publishers have another option available that can make 
far more money for them:  the web = iOS + the entire rest of the world.

Rather than spending themselves silly making single-platform apps, they 
can just go back to the web and get 100% of the world's eyeballs at a 
much lower cost -- and they keep 100% of all revenues in doing so.

Earn more, spend less. Makes good business sense for content publishers 
to blow off the app store entirely.


 > It may be that Apple is not after the major developers anyway, and
 > are thinking about small developers...

..of which there are many...

 > who start out selling an app on the store, hit huge success with it...

...of which there are very few.

Last time I saw any stats on this, it looked to me a very long tail: 
only the top 100 were making serious money, the second 100 making about 
what most of us make on desktop apps, and all the rest of the 350,000 
apps there were earning somewhere between minimum wage and zero.


 > ...and then try to market out of store to avoid paying Apple.

Even fewer.

The conflict here is about content publishers, and as long as there is a 
WWW they have a more profitable option awaiting them.  Now that they're 
no longer as dazzled by the novelty of the iPad, they can settle down 
and get back to business basics.


 > If the DOJ goes after Apple, it may end up that the people who
 > thought that Apple was going to rule the world can rest easier.
 > I guess in a healthy economy everything eventually balances
 > everything else. I don't understand Antitrust though. I thought
 > that was when multiple companies selling a similar product conspire
 > to fix prices. Wouldn't it fall more under Monopoly?

Hard to say how that will pan out; there are precendents both ways.  I'm 
no attorney, but the Sherman Act does have a few things to say about 
price fixing even outside of monopolies.

Still, I don't imagine this will come to much, as the savvier publishers 
will just go back to the web and make more money.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  LiveCode training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
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