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by kj99 874 days ago
$1 apps that make more than $10,000,000 in annual revenue?
2 comments

The annual revenue does not affect the €0.50/install fee. 10 million installs would cost €500,000 for a free app under the new terms.
That's true but it doesn't contradict my point about a $1 app with 10 million installs.

In any case, a free app can always be released under the current terms.

I think the obvious point is that free to consumer apps still cost something in terms of the platform. It has been a common complaint in the past that apps like Uber or Facebook have a huge number of installs but don't pay anything. This simply brings transparency to that.

Except it can't "always" be released under the current terms. If the developer has ever released an app under the new terms, they're forced into them for all their future apps, forever. Likewise if they ever intend to release a different app under the new terms, all their old apps would be retroactively moved to the new terms.

The irrevocable and all-or-nothing aspect will make it pretty much impossible for any serious developer to ever choose the new terms. Just as Apple intended.

Perhaps expecting Apple to subsidize their apps was always unreasonable.
1 million installs already, not 10 million. And updates count as installs, so it is practically a yearly per-user fee.
I mean, the top paid games on the store right now are:

6.99, 1.99, 4.99, 0.99, 0.99, 0.99

That 1.99 (geometry dash) grosses 250k a month in the US alone.

And that 1.99 app would pay 25% to Apple, which is lower than the current 30%.