[helsinkiandrew]

It's a different matter whether 30% is a valid cut for Apple to make on Hey In App subscriptions. But $2,400 (8*$300/year?) for the delivery and update, notifications and Siri integration etc to millions of apps/devices sounds a pretty good deal.

[libertine]

+ the hardware mandatory to build and submit Apps to the AppStore, right?

[oauea]

Yes. Apple forces you to buy their overpriced hardware if you want to develop for their platform.

[jmisavage]

Xcode comes with an iOS simulator so you don't need hardware, but it would be a bad idea not to test on an actual device.

[oauea]

How do I run xcode on Linux or Windows?

[megous]

In qemu.

[oauea]

Is this legally possible without software piracy? Can you link me to instructions? Does apple have documentation anywhere?

[Hamuko]

Xcode only runs on Apple hardware. (a)

a. Well, if Apple got their way when it came to Hackintoshes.

[jmisavage]

You got me there.

[wayneftw]

Those are all things that you have no choice in.

You can’t install an alternative to Siri. You can’t use a different push notification system. You can’t use an alternative store and send updates yourself.

[stephenr]

Where do you get $300 from? The developer program is $99/year regardless of how many apps you have.

[helsinkiandrew]

Enterprise account is $300 https://developer.apple.com/programs/enterprise/

[JimDabell]

The enterprise account is for people deploying enterprise apps internally. You can't use it for publishing apps to the App Store. Basecamp will be using the standard developer account, not the enterprise account.

[stephenr]

An enterprise account is not required to ship public apps. It's specifically designed for those who want to ship private apps, which I'm pretty sure Basecamp don't do.

[emsy]

On the other hand, for a lot of successful apps Apple’s share looks like profiteering and it becomes a very bad (but unavoidable) deal for developers.

[merb]

actually you can't use an enterprise license for the app store. https://developer.apple.com/programs/enterprise/ it clearly says that:

> Please learn about the Apple Developer Program first. The Apple Developer Program is the right option for most organizations that want to distribute proprietary, internal-use apps. It allows you to use Apple Business Manager, Ad Hoc distribution, or redemption codes to privately distribute custom apps to employees, and TestFlight to test beta versions of your apps.

> The Apple Developer Enterprise Program is only for specific use cases that cannot be addressed using these methods. Before applying for the Apple Developer Enterprise Program, learn more about the Apple Developer Program to see if it addresses your use case. If not, you can start your application.

so it's only 99 USD

[helsinkiandrew]

OK - so its $800 - that makes the services provided by Apple even more value for money

[Hamuko]

Sure, it might be decent value to a company. It's still not zero revenue as Apple likes to frame it.

[kristianc]

It equates to the value of exactly one annual Hey subscription.