XCode 4
- Started
- Last post
- 26 Responses
- Boz0
Let's put it in perspective here and people know I dislike Apple quite a bit as a company.
Visual Studio from Microsoft is similar to Xcode really for application development. It costs from several hundred bucks to a couple of grand. It is probably by far the biggest and preferred environment for developing applications for Windows and it costs quite a bit of money.
Xcode on the other hand is great environment along with Interface Builder and now it's even better combining the both in one package.. It probably costs them a lot more in resources to build this and $4.99 for those who are not on Apple Developer's subscription is a fair thing.
If they were charging for a version where you still have an Apple Developer subscription but you have to pay them $5, now that would be something to shit on.
The fact that you have to pay $99 to be able to submit your apps and be an official apple platform developer for Mac App Store and again $99 for an iOS store and so on, should irk you MORE then the fact that Xcode, a very complex and great coding environment costs $5.
This is really a non-issue for those who are on Apple Developer Connection and let's face it, you want to build shit for OSX/App Store/iOS you need that subscription to submit apps. The only ones who would have to pay $5 are those who were building software for OSX outside of the Apple's new app eco-system and selling it that way without Apple getting any profits, but if you look at it, this audience of developers will be a dying breed anyways because Apple is killing the online model of software sales with open web and want everything to go through them for Mac platform and iOS and charge you $100 for each plus take profit from app sales.
The tools are irrelevant.. they can be $1000+.. but when I sell my software and make big profits that gets amortized. The more concerning issue is that now you have to pay someone 30%+ to sell your software. Funny how nobody complains about that from the same people complaining about $5 Xcode 4.
Talk about misplaced priorities.
- Boz0
Or let's talk about the fact that the only serious development tool for Apple platforms is in fact XCode.. That's the problem here.. No competition, they can do whatever..
I'm guessing the realities of closed up systems are kicking in right now and people really have nothing to complain about.. Those who pick Apple platform should know better.
- ernexbcn0
FFS when Apple came up with the 30/70 scheme that was well taken by the industry, and even praised by some of them like John Carmack from id software.
You don't seem to even know how it was on other platforms before, it was less than 70% for the devs.
- Boz0
developers/companies always had 100% profits.. you had initial costs to setup retail channel/distribution but the advantage was that once setup they did zero profit sharing.
That's how big software companies came to be to begin with and grew to be billion dollar companies..
Apple saw that and wants to lock everything in so any app developed for Apple platform and being sold they will have a piece of profits.. In return they do take care of distribution. For smaller developers this might make sense, but if you become big, you start realizing that the Apple's model is not that great.
- ernexbcn0
Boz all I'm saying is that Apple did not invented this, don't troll for the sake of trolling, other mobile platforms had worse conditions than the current 30/70 of the App Store.
And don't forget how the videogame consoles have the same kind of royalties, not only you need to get approved by Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft, you have to buy their expensive development kits, pass a certification process when you finish your game and for evey copy sold the manufacturer of the console gets a %.
So please, stop making it sound like Apple invented this kind of environment.
- Amicus0
Lets look outside the world of software.
Apple is essentially setting itself up like a cross between a franchisor and a reseller/retailer.
Like a franchisor they set up all the systems and help with marketing and generally making life easier for everyone in the system.
Like a retailer they actually get people into the store where they stock your product, and they make a 30% markup. They do have their own costs so this isn't pure profit.
If I could choose between selling my product with a limited marketing budget and giving Apple 30% to stock my product in a large, targeted marketplace it's a no brainer. $99 to stock my product is far better than the $1000's that a supermarket will charge to put a cereal packet on the shelf in a decent location.