No go apps on the Mac App Store

[kirkmc]

The Mac App Store has just launched, and I naturally searched for go apps (baduk, weiqi, etc.). Nothing at all. Given that it seems that apps can be ported from iOS, I'm wondering what we'll see...

[ZeroKun]

It'd be great if the guy who wrote Tetsuki ported the iPad(in beta now) version to the desktop.

[kirkmc]

Yes, that and SmartGo Kifu.

[palapiku]

The App store seems like a pretty horrible distribution model unless you really need the added exposure, as Apple takes a huge cut from each payment.

Do desktop Go apps really need this added exposure? Clearly you already know what they are. Why do you want to go through a greedy middleman?

[kirkmc]

Well, many developers are more than happy to get the exposure. I assume you don't know much about sales. Most companies pay from 7-12% for fulfillment, and they give up nearly 50% for retail sales. So while 30% may sound like a lot, it's not, given the eyeballs that you get being there.

[hyperpape]

Yeah, the thing is that most retailers have a few expenses that Apple doesn't really incur.

I think the app store is likely to be a boost to many developers. Exposure is a huge issue, and the app store makes it simpler. It also makes payment, updates and everything else a lot easier (companies won't save 30% on overhead, but they will save something).

Added: it's also a huge boon to someone who wants to sell cheap and simple apps. See TUAW on first day price points.

But I'm still dissatisfied. I tend to think that the app store should not make money for Apple*, except so far as software development becomes simpler/more profitable, making Apple hardware more profitable. I realize that's a horribly naive and/or idealistic thing to say, but I'd really like to see the direct benefits flow to companies and individuals who make that software.

I'm not sure if this idea is remotely defensible, or if it's entirely based on an emotional reaction. Probably the latter.

* A strategy of never make profit doesn't make a lot of sense for a company that has unpredictable costs and revenues. I guess what I mean is that profits should be small and secondary.

[kirkmc]

Apple has never broken out profits from the iTunes Store. At least until they started selling iOS apps, it was widely assumed that they more or less broke even. This may or may not have changed, but it has never been about making money for Apple, but rather about selling hardware. They have quite a lot of expenses running their store. This may, of course, change, now that they're selling higher-priced apps, but everyone in the industry I've ever talked to about this agrees that Apple makes very little overall on the iTunes Store.

[hyperpape]

Kirk, can you point to anything definitive? (I mean, I can't either...)

The break-even estimates that I've seen are for the store as a whole. But that's a bad comparison: music suffers because of the size of credit card processing fees, which include a fixed component for every transaction. So $.99 songs (or apps) can't make much money. But even $5 apps do much better.

Second: just to be clear, many estimates that I've found just now effectively say "Apple doesn't make much profit on iTunes relative to their ~$20 billion annual profit." That's certainly true--it's just too small a portion of their operations. But the relevant question is percent margin.

[kirkmc]

No, there are no official figures. As I said, Apple has never broken out those figures.

As for margin, you point out that small sales lead to high fulfillment costs. Don't forget that Apple foots the bill for all the free apps that are provided, as well as paying for other free content. And they just spent, what, $1 billion for that data center in NC.

If you look at others, such as Amazon and Google, they're also taking 30%, or, in the case of Amazon, potentially much more (http://gigaom.com/2011/01/05/amazo-aims ... app-store/). Now this may be because Apple paved the way, but there are a lot of costs for running such a store.

In any case, the above poster who called them a "greedy middleman" is a bit clueless about how much such things do cost.

[palapiku]

I'm not comparing Apple to Amazon or Google. I'm comparing them with just buying the software from its developer. You obviously already know where to find the software.
Are you just worried in the abstract about all those thousands of people who would potentially buy SmartGo but are not able to find it without it being in the App store?

[kirkmc]

Yes, that's exactly the point. And that's why developers want to be in these stores - be they run by Apple, Amazon or Google.

The vast majority of people never buy software, don't read blogs, and don't frequent forums. These stores help developer get far more potential customers than most of them could ever get otherwise. (Trust me, I've been talking to a lot of developers about this.) It's not abstract; it's the truth.

Granted, certain niches - say go players - are different, but they're not the ones who are targeted by apps in these stores. Nevertheless, I can see go apps in the Mac App Store, especially, say, from Asian countries, by developers who don't have access to western consumers.