[donor20]

You can distribute an app for free if you are part of their developer program - which is something like $99 for all the needed software and tooling (perhaps one of the lowest SDK prices historically?). They will actually subsidize all your bandwidth / storage / distribution costs in that case.

[fenomas]

> You can distribute an app for free if you are part of their developer program

I think you mean: "you can submit an app to them and they will decide whether or not to distribute it".

[zucker42]

You can distribute an app for free if you pay Apple $99?

[the_hoser]

Not even close to the lowest price.

And that isn't a solution, either.

[yellowapple]

> free

> something like $99

Pick one.

[fomine3]

I should tell you that Android SDK takes $0.

[pjmlp]

And $25 for distribution on the store.

So what, if those $100 prevent shitty copy-cats, the more the better.

[hesarenu]

It does not in fact prevent anything. There are hundreds of shitty apps in both iOS and Android.

[pjmlp]

Which proves the point that $100 is quite affordable.

[grumple]

For first world professionals, it’s nothing.

For others it’s steep. And maybe that was the point.

[pjmlp]

Others tend to have an Android dominated market, so....

[hesarenu]

$100 might cheap for westerners. Not for us.

[pjmlp]

True, that is why Android and feature phones rule in such countries, not iOS, thus making a moot point when customers aren't using Apple devices anyway.