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Businesses Desktops (Apple) Apple

Story of Two Developers Who Are Reporting Growth in Revenue After Leaving Apple's App Store (techcrunch.com) 65

Posted by msmash from the going-independent dept.
John Biggs, writing for TechCrunch: In what amounts to one of the purest and most interesting experiments in assessing the value of Mac OS's App Store, the founder of Rogue Amoeba posted a description of what happened when he pulled his app Piezo. The result? More revenue as a whole without much damage to sales. The impetus for the move came after Apple pulled the Dash app off of the App Store. In the 100-day period since the move, Dash maintained and even increased revenue and found that its users didn't care which platform they were using -- 84% of the customers simply moved over to the independent app license from the App Store license. The bottom line? "It feels great to have full control over my business and to avoid App Store installation/updating/purchasing issues," wrote Dash creator Bogdan Popescu. When Paul Kafasis tried to move away from the App Store he was worried he'd lose half of his sales. After all, many months saw about 50% of sales coming from the App Store directly. When he pulled the app a year ago, however, all of those App Store sales turned into direct sales through his website, a fact that surprised and amused Kafasis.
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Story of Two Developers Who Are Reporting Growth in Revenue After Leaving Apple's App Store More

Story of Two Developers Who Are Reporting Growth in Revenue After Leaving Apple's App Store

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  • News at 11 (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Developers discover when they stop paying someone a huge % of their profits, they make more money.

    • Re:News at 11 (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Monday February 13, 2017 @01:56PM (#53857813)

      To be clear, this is about the Mac App Store (MAS), not the (iOS) App Store. In both cases, you're effectively paying Apple a cut of the profits in order to make your product more accessible to consumers. In the case of the iOS App Store, it's pretty obvious that the 15%/30% cut is worth it, since if your app isn't there, it isn't for sale as far as 99.9% of people are concerned (even though that's not strictly the case).

      But the MAS? Its value proposition has always been questionable.

      For one, purchasing patterns are drastically different between mobile and PC. Consumers typically already know what Mac apps they plan to buy, rather than browse-shopping like they do on iOS, so whether the app is in the MAS or on a website makes no difference. As such, developers don't lose much from pulling out, or, in many cases, what they lose in unit sales is more than made up in reduced overhead.

      Making matters worse for the MAS, it's oftentimes the case that the version of the app sold in the MAS is both more expensive and has less features than the one sold on their website. The MAS has a number of requirements (e.g. strict sandboxing) that make certain features virtually impossible to implement, so the apps in the MAS are oftentimes missing key features found in the direct-sale versions, or they might be lagging behind by a few versions due to the app store review process that all updates need to go through. And because developers don't see much benefit from the MAS, many of them simply tack on a 30% premium for the version sold through the MAS, that way they can recoup the cost. But even in the case that the developer doesn't price it higher, there's no way to offer upgrade pricing for loyal customers, so MAS users end up paying full price for subsequent versions, rather than being able to get a discount that the developer might be offering on direct sales.

      All of which is to say, the MAS is a somewhat hostile environment to both developers AND users, so it's not surprising that niche apps aimed power users (i.e. the ones most likely to know how to use a browser to find software) are seeing improved numbers after pulling out of the MAS.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Old97 ( 1341297 )
        I use both the mac os app store and buy direct. If an app and its publisher are not well known the app store has advantages. It's easy enough to find and you know you can trust it. Reviews give you some idea about its value. Prices tend to be low so its an easy decision to go ahead and buy it. Once I own and am familiar with the app though, I'd be perfectly willing to buy it direct or go direct to the publisher to get an upgrade or related product. So my conclusion is that the mac app store is a good pl

      • To be clear, this is about the Mac App Store (MAS), not the (iOS) App Store.

        OHHH that explains ALL of my questions. Yea the Mac App Store was and is a silly idea, your computer is not a phone it doesn't need it's own app store.

        • your computer is not a phone it doesn't need it's own app store.

          The only reason you think your phone needs an App Store is because Apple has forced people to use it. I get apps for my phone from various sources. It's perfectly easy to do. Because it's not an iPhone.

          This kind of failure (as in TFS) is what happens when you mismanage an App Store. Apple has no idea what it's doing here. The only reason they get away with the iOS app store is because users can't side load. But with macOS - so far - you can, so

      • Important clarification, thank you.
      • Actually one plus for me is that when I buy from the App Store I can LEGALLY install it on multiple computers I own. Yes, I own Apps I have bought directly too, but these are typically licensed for one computer, yes there are exceptions and yes there are "family packs" offering 5 licences but they tend to charge more for this. There is also the issue of serial numbers, don't need them for the App Store, so this make it great for disorganised people. And , for unknown Apps, there is a greater degree of tr

      • But how long will this last? With all the rumours of Apple going ARM-only for their future generations of Macs, the Mac App Store may end up being the only way to sell macOS apps in the future.

        And seeing how Apple is not taking care of their Mac users (no real Mac mini update since 2012, no Mac Pro updates in way too long, premium price for now sub-par components, i.e. slow 5400RPM HDDs, soldered and non-upgradable RAM, etc), the point of owning a Mac could soon cease to exist.

        What's the best Linux or BSD f

        • Lots of things may happen. For now, if the machine is working for you better than anything else you've looked into, keep using it. Simple as that.

          As to your concerns, even if Apple decided to do what you said, it wouldn't be an immediate concern. You'd be able to keep using your existing machines for years as people worked on creating/polishing alternatives, given that there'd be nothing forcing you to "upgrade". By the time you needed to purchase an alternative, there'd not only be plenty of them available

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday February 13, 2017 @01:29PM (#53857509)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:Stop calling them apps! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by johnhennessy ( 94737 ) on Monday February 13, 2017 @01:31PM (#53857539)

      Can we rate this story flamebait ?

      It looks like Slashdot (and Techcrunch?) is just trying to bring up the whole Dash debacle again to generate traffic.

      Resist people ... resist!

    • Re:Stop calling them apps! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TheFakeTimCook ( 4641057 ) on Monday February 13, 2017 @01:37PM (#53857613)

      Seriously, people are going to confuse this story with iOS 'apps', when in fact it's about full fledged computer applications on Mac OS.

      Oops! That's EXACTLY what I did...

      Why is this even a story, then? Macs have never had a "Walled Garden" approach. The vast majority of Mac software is still sold independently of the Mac App Store.

      • Macs have never had a "Walled Garden" approach. The vast majority of Mac software is still sold independently of the Mac App Store.

        For now.

        First, the Mac App Store was opt-in.
        Then, it was opt-out.
        Then, it prompted when applications were run if they weren't installed from the App Store.
        Then it required admin access to allow sideloaded applications.

        It's abundantly clear that Apple is using the winning formula from iOS and applying it to OSX. Slowly, of course, but mark my words: within the next release or two of OSX, you'll see at least a few of these:
        -require a terminal command to enable sideloaded apps,
        -prompt every time a sideloaded a

        • which actually makes sense, if you want to keep selling Macs. The demographics of computer buyers are changing away from power-users to casual users scratching heads over whether a tablet is enough. And with malware slowly but steadily on the rise for MacOS [arstechnica.com], there is a reason why a lot of people from a high-school kid to your grandmother would be better off with a software depot that is safe and proven and offers automatic updates.

          It ain't for me, but more and more even I get twitchy downloading something

          • > The demographics of computer buyers are changing away from power-users to casual users

            Eh? There are more developers than ever.

            • Eh? There are more developers than ever.

              But developers are not where the money is. Unless you're a Mac or iOS developer, you're probably looking at a PC anyway. Right now, Tim Cook and company want to sell Macs to people who are ogling at iPhones and iWatches, and they think that means smaller and lighter [itpro.co.uk], rather than beefy and powerful [theverge.com].

              I don't like this trend. But people getting paid a lot more than I am believe that this is where the money is (read: market-share growth). There's some truth to this, as for a long time the quality of PC lapto

              • I wasn't really counting Mac or iOS developers. They're a small fraction of the whole. I mean people who program or design electronics and can get more done in a Unix derivative OS. I work in a building with 5000 such people. My observation is that a large proportion were very happy with the retina MBPs (I like my late 2013 model) and didn't feel screwed. Nice screen and keyboard, nice robust and simple case and you can work in a bash shell and can compile programs that also compile on Linux.

                The new MBPs ha

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by e r ( 2847683 )

            ...there is a reason why a lot of people from a high-school kid to your grandmother would be better off with a software depot that is safe and proven and offers automatic updates.

            You mean like Linux distros have had for decades?

            • You mean like Linux distros have had for decades?

              Yeah, but no. In short, dependency hell [wikipedia.org]. PC-BSD and MacOS largely avoid this by keeping apps in their own containers. In the Linux world, RPM and dpkg depend too much on particular repositories (and their maintainers) to keep things just right, which often means the mainstream repo doesn't have the latest releases and you find yourself jonezing for the experimental repository or some off-site, you're-on-your-own repo to get what you need, and then shit starts to happen. It's gotten a lot better, for rea

        • Macs have never had a "Walled Garden" approach. The vast majority of Mac software is still sold independently of the Mac App Store.

          For now.

          First, the Mac App Store was opt-in. Then, it was opt-out. Then, it prompted when applications were run if they weren't installed from the App Store. Then it required admin access to allow sideloaded applications.

          It's abundantly clear that Apple is using the winning formula from iOS and applying it to OSX. Slowly, of course, but mark my words: within the next release or two of OSX, you'll see at least a few of these: -require a terminal command to enable sideloaded apps, -prompt every time a sideloaded app is run without the ability to suppress it. -require a third party patch of some kind. -require some sort of jailbreaking procedure. -threat of voided warranty if sideloaded apps are found.

          OSX isn't a walled garden yet...but Tim Cook is absolutely building a wall. And his customers are paying for it.

          Yeah, doom and gloom. Apple is Teh Evilz!

          Heard it all before.

          Right-Click and you can Run anything from anywhere. It's your funeral. Now and forever.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          For now.

          First, the Mac App Store was opt-in.
          Then, it was opt-out.
          Then, it prompted when applications were run if they weren't installed from the App Store.
          Then it required admin access to allow sideloaded applications.

          It's abundantly clear that Apple is using the winning formula from iOS and applying it to OSX. Slowly, of course, but mark my words: within the next release or two of OSX, you'll see at least a few of these:
          -require a terminal command to enable sideloaded apps,
          -prompt every time a sideloaded a

          • For now.

            First, the Mac App Store was opt-in.
            Then, it was opt-out.
            Then, it prompted when applications were run if they weren't installed from the App Store.
            Then it required admin access to allow sideloaded applications.

            It's abundantly clear that Apple is using the winning formula from iOS and applying it to OSX. Slowly, of course, but mark my words: within the next release or two of OSX, you'll see at least a few of these:
            -require a terminal command to enable sideloaded apps,
            -prompt every time a sideloaded app is run without the ability to suppress it.
            -require a third party patch of some kind.
            -require some sort of jailbreaking procedure.
            -threat of voided warranty if sideloaded apps are found.

            OSX isn't a walled garden yet...but Tim Cook is absolutely building a wall. And his customers are paying for it.

            Nope.

            For starters, there's a limit to apps in the Mac App Store. They can't install device drivers, nor can they be "demo" apps.

            Admittedly I'm not a daily Mac user, but I'm having a rough time coming up with hardware that fits the limitations. Device drivers? I'm having trouble coming up with one that doesn't come from Apple directly. Even specialty/media hardware tends to either be class compliant or properly autodiscovered, and typically the super-specialty hardware (like MRI machines or factory floor operations equipment) tends to be PC specific.

            And then those apps are sandboxed - they do not have full access to the filesystem. So this excludes a whole bunch of utilities.

            Okay, so WinDirStat and XYplorer and Defraggler are out...

            Finally, Gatekeeper only pops up the message when a app is copied from "untrusted" sources. What's untrusted? Stuff downloaded from the internet. Not stuff obtained from USB sticks or optical media, or even... the compiler.

            Apple doesn't sell machines

    • Seriously, people are going to confuse this story with iOS 'apps', when in fact it's about full fledged computer applications on Mac OS.

      I wasn't confused. It's right there on the first line : "Mac OS's App Store".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by guises ( 2423402 )
      Oh, ha. Thanks for clearly that up for me, that's exactly what I thought.

      Was wondering how he was selling this, independent of the walled garden...
    • /me raises hand

      I was confused.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      But they are apps. "App" is just short for "application". It's always been this way, this isnt anything new that came along with smartphones. You can call them iOS apps or iOS applications, macOS apps, or macOS applications, it's the exact same thing.

  • Imma Dash Store Relocator (Score:4, Informative)

    by TechyImmigrant ( 175943 ) on Monday February 13, 2017 @01:40PM (#53857643) Homepage Journal

    I am one of those who had been using Dash and was forced to go through a re-licensing procedure when Apple kicked it off the Apple app store.

    While moderately convenient, the Apple MacOS app store is not good and the experience buying from outside is better. The number of reviews on each application is too small to be useful. It is often 0. I assume this is because they are not being shows. I've posted reviews and they never appeared. So you are left looking at the promotional blurb, wondering if the application is going to be good.

    Also there are bugs with the App store's licensing code, because I often get told I don't 'own this application on this computer' (I do, I purchased it on through the app store) and have to log into with my AppleID to make it go away - on the same machine I purchased the application.

    So it's buggy, leaves consumers guessing and reams developers for fees. There is plenty of scope for someone to set up a better app store that all the vendors would switch to. Steam did it for games. So why not?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jemmyw ( 624065 )
      Yes. I didn't purchase Dash through the App Store originally and I'm pretty glad of that. I've seen the App Store bugginess with other apps, and I wish I'd had the foresight to not use it with anything.

      Saying that though, Dash has been driving me mad with it's own bugs and slowness recently.

  • I like Products (Score:3)

    by Yergle143 ( 848772 ) on Monday February 13, 2017 @01:52PM (#53857781)

    Rogue Amoeba makes a nice program Airfoill [rogueamoeba.com] that allows my Apple OSX to play nice with the Google Chromecast. Casting audio to my old Stereo is now a cinch. Why Google and Apple don't seem to get along is no mystery.

    • Yes, I've been using Airfoil for years to play music from any source to my small fleet of Airplay receivers (Airport Express) that I use for super-cheap whole-house audio. One of them recently died and so I added an even more super-cheap Chromecast Audio. Impressively, Airfoil treats it identically to Airplay and even keeps them all in perfect sync with one another. Very nice software.

  • I got caught out on the app store several years back, bought an expensive suite for couple of hundred dollars, when it came time to upgrade. Ooops, sorry upgrade pricing is not possible on the app store you need to re-buy the next version at full price. If I had purchased direct the upgrade would have been only $80-. After contacting the developer and asking if I could switch to the non appstore version + upgrade they declined citing being to scared to piss of apple. So I was royally fucked. Anyways stil

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