Posts Tagged ‘apple’

With Apple’s recent iPhone SDK release, the local tech scene is planning an event. However, as some of the comments have pointed out, Apple’s licensing arrangement is a tad restrictive. This all sounds vaguely familiar. As it has been told to me, when Apple originally released the Macintosh, the software kit was expensive and exclusive: you could only buy your tools from Apple. This limited the availability of 3rd party Mac software, which in turn limited the adoption of the computer itself.

Fast forward to today with the iPhone kit. While the $99 for a full development license (allowing you to test on your iPhone instead of an emulator) isn’t exorbitant, it’s certainly a hurdle. The biggest offense though is the distribution system. You are required to distribute your application through Apple’s site, have your application blessed by Steve Jobs, and only then do you get to keep 70% of the sales revenue.

Apple is trying to double dip in the upper right hand corner of the software business model map: first by selling the iPhone, then by selling other people’s software products. Perhaps the iFund they’ve arranged will soften the blow. My guess is that iPhone developers will move towards the upper left corner instead so that Apple will have less of a cut of their revenue. Why would an iPhone developer spend large resources on developing a rich iPhone app, only to hand 30% of their revenue to Apple?