On Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:06:36 -0700, Darren New wrote:

> On 9/2/2011 9:18, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Thu, 01 Sep 2011 22:53:28 -0700, Darren New wrote:
>>
>>> On 9/1/2011 8:57, Jim Henderson wrote:
>>>> Apple's attempts to extort *30%* of content sales with apps
>>>> distributed through the app store
>>>
>>> That's pretty much industry standard for all the app stores, including
>>> Microsoft and Android.
>>
>> I don't think so, but my sample size is one at present.  (It's standard
>> for the app itself, not the paid content - the paid content is what I'm
>> talking about).
> 
> Google takes a 30% cut of sales on the app store. Microsoft takes a 30%
> cut of sales on XBox indy games and Win7 phones. Amazon takes a 30% cut
> of books you publish on the Kindle.

Yes, but that's not the same as what I'm talking about.  I'm talking 
about in-app purchases - Apple seems to think that they are entitled to 
take 30% of Amazon's revenues for books purchased in the Kindle app.  No 
other vendor does that that I've heard of.

So what Amazon has done is moved the Kindle app into an HTML5-based cloud 
app so they don't have to pay Apple the 30%.

>> After all, Amazon isn't a charity either - Apple cutting into their
>> profits doesn't mean they make less, it means they raise their prices.
> 
> My guess is Amazon is big enough to make a deal with Apple for books
> Amazon is publishing themselves. For self-published books (i.e., small
> publishers), it's the same cut either way.

No, we're talking about two different things here.

>>> A big part of that is to prevent piracy from jailbroken iphones/ipads.
>>
>> I don't think that's what Apple's motivation is.  They want to make
>> money not just on the apps, but on the content purchasable in the apps
>> as well.
> 
> Sure. But the reason people bother to put content up when it could be
> part of the app is to help curb piracy, which is still a major drawback
> of iphone publishing.

Sure, but that's got nothing to do with the 30% cut Apple wants from in-
app purchases.

Jim

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