[glesica]

Until the next cool freemium app in that space comes out, then the customer just switches to that one.

The real problem is that we just don't need 80 gazillion apps. The "app" market is extremely competitive, that's really what people are complaining about, profits have been driven down to basically nothing. Normally you would expect some developers to drop out of the market, which would help the situation, but two things are stopping that from happening, in my opinion.

First, the platform companies (Apple and Google) have been incredibly successful at promoting app development as a gold mine. For every developer who gets sick of it and moves on to something else, two people become "app developers".

Second, there's a startup bubble and the wisdom out there says you need an app or your startup is nothing. This partly relates to the first point, the hype around "apps", even years after Apple launched the app store, is deafening.

[rokhayakebe]

App stores should try charging people $100/year after the first year an app is in the store.

Or the reverse, pay $100 to pull your app from the store after its first year.

[nostrademons]

I believe Apple does do this - it's $99/year to become an Apple Developer, and I think you need to be an Apple Developer to have an app in the app store.

[clarky07]

It is $99/year to have apps in the App Store, but it is per developer account and not per app.

I almost think devs would be better off if it was per app. At least any devs planning to make a living off the store. It would cut down on a lot of the crappy spammy apps out there.

[detaro]

It would also kill the one-off hobby stuff with which many, especially teens, get their taste for (app) development, which would be a high price to pay. Without a secondary path to distribute apps I think it would be a bad idea.