Manton Reece on the App Store’s 30 Percent Cut

Smart piece from Manton Reece on the frustrations developers face dealing with the App Store:

Apple provides a unique service and it’s their right to charge whatever they want. Developers can choose to pay it or restrict development to more open platforms. I’m inclined to think the 30% is high but not unreasonable for everything Apple hopes to provide.

But here’s where everything breaks down: for $3000 I expect someone at Apple to tell me what the $%!# is going on.

It’s not just review times, or emails that go into the void, unanswered for days or weeks or ever. It’s that Apple isn’t able to communicate about the fundamental issues that will make or break businesses.

If you know Manton like I do, you realize how frustrated he is to use a strong word like “$%!#”. One concrete problem Manton faced: his excellent Clipstart spent seven weeks in the approval queue for the Mac App Store, with no feedback regarding why. The good news: it finally hit the Mac App Store today. (Seriously, check it out; I use Clipstart for storing all the personal video I shoot.)

★ Wednesday, 12 January 2011