Apple App Store Contract

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IdeasVacuum
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Apple App Store Contract

Post by IdeasVacuum »

tj1010
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Re: Apple App Store Contract

Post by tj1010 »

Last I looked I think it was $99.00/Year. I don't even bother even though all my projects build and run on OSX and IOS.
IdeasVacuum
Posts: 143
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Re: Apple App Store Contract

Post by IdeasVacuum »

Hi tj1010 - you didn't read the article?
tj1010
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Re: Apple App Store Contract

Post by tj1010 »

IdeasVacuum wrote:Hi tj1010 - you didn't read the article?

Yeah apple keeps the 30% commission on refunds, but even before this you had to pay the $99.00 a year plus buy the $400.00+(that's used by the way) hardware that will run latest OSX plus the $150+(used) for a device that will run IOS and has the features you need to test.. About $700.00 just to get started.. Android you can do for tens of dollars because everything but the Android device is free..
Bradan
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Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 2:07 pm

Re: Apple App Store Contract

Post by Bradan »

Developing apps in general is very expensive, even if you want to make them freely available. Problems which will cost you money:
  • If you want to publish it outside the USA: you need either a good knowledge about US export restrictions or an lawyer to fill out everything they need and to do the annual reports (if it isn't open source). This can cost more than 1000€ and be careful, they changed it a bit so you have to self-classify everything.
  • If you want to sell your app or make money through ads: you need several tax professionals to help you with it, some will lie to you and you will have to sort it out by using an uneven number of tax professionals greater than one. They don't know much about MOSS, yet. Google says they pay your taxes, but your name is still on the bill, which isn't possible according to my three tax professionals. So you will do something wrong, and if your tax professionals are not noted down as helping person in your tax reports, you will probably end up with rather high punishments.
  • If you want to make money, you need to advertise your app, otherwise it will not be seen. (1000€)
  • In any case you need a privacy policy. This will either be done by a lawyer (1000€ + 100-500€ for each professional translation) every time the privacy laws change or you can use a service like iubenda, which has monthly or annual costs (~30€ per year and policy in one language), however they cannot give you a warranty.
So better don't create apps. Create desktop applications and sell them yourself or create web based applications and host them yourself.

99$/year is nothing compared to the remaining costs.
tj1010
Posts: 201
Joined: Wed May 27, 2015 1:36 pm
Contact:

Re: Apple App Store Contract

Post by tj1010 »

Bradan wrote:Developing apps in general is very expensive, even if you want to make them freely available. Problems which will cost you money:
  • If you want to publish it outside the USA: you need either a good knowledge about US export restrictions or an lawyer to fill out everything they need and to do the annual reports (if it isn't open source). This can cost more than 1000€ and be careful, they changed it a bit so you have to self-classify everything.
  • If you want to sell your app or make money through ads: you need several tax professionals to help you with it, some will lie to you and you will have to sort it out by using an uneven number of tax professionals greater than one. They don't know much about MOSS, yet. Google says they pay your taxes, but your name is still on the bill, which isn't possible according to my three tax professionals. So you will do something wrong, and if your tax professionals are not noted down as helping person in your tax reports, you will probably end up with rather high punishments.
  • If you want to make money, you need to advertise your app, otherwise it will not be seen. (1000€)
  • In any case you need a privacy policy. This will either be done by a lawyer (1000€ + 100-500€ for each professional translation) every time the privacy laws change or you can use a service like iubenda, which has monthly or annual costs (~30€ per year and policy in one language), however they cannot give you a warranty.
So better don't create apps. Create desktop applications and sell them yourself or create web based applications and host them yourself.

99$/year is nothing compared to the remaining costs.
I've never done anything for exports except with crypto, and I put all earnings through a 1099 like I use to do with freelancing. I contract out some of my finance and legal stuff to a tax lawyer and accountant too but that's mostly for planning.

My biggest expenses ever, and I've been doing this since before Android existed in the days of J2ME, were subbing out art and coding tasks to meet realistic personal and employer deadlines. A lot of people don't do the latter and never finish projects..
Bradan
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Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 2:07 pm

Re: Apple App Store Contract

Post by Bradan »

tj1010 wrote:I've never done anything for exports except with crypto [...]
Exactly this is what I mean. You don't even need to use encryption in your app, it is only necessary to link to a system library which includes encryption. This means all cordova apps are always involved, as they use the webview which is capable of using HTTPS.
tj1010 wrote:[...] and I put all earnings through a 1099 like I use to do with freelancing. I contract out some of my finance and legal stuff to a tax lawyer and accountant too but that's mostly for planning.
You cannot do this if you want to sell internationally in more than a few countries and as I mentioned already, tax lawyers don't always tell the truth. In Europe we got MOSS now, which simplifies it a bit, but Google kills it by doing something wrong. The punishments for tax frauds are often very high, depending on the country of course.
IdeasVacuum
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Joined: Tue Feb 25, 2014 1:27 pm

Re: Apple App Store Contract

Post by IdeasVacuum »

Sooo, is it possible to make MacOS/iOS apps available on your own website for download and 'install' in the same way as we can with Windows/Android/Linux? Or do Apple devices prevent their owners from obtaining apps from anywhere other than the Apple Store?
Bradan
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2016 2:07 pm

Re: Apple App Store Contract

Post by Bradan »

IdeasVacuum wrote:Sooo, is it possible to make MacOS/iOS apps available on your own website for download and 'install' in the same way as we can with Windows/Android/Linux? Or do Apple devices prevent their owners from obtaining apps from anywhere other than the Apple Store?
For MacOS yes, for iOS no. You'd basically need to jailbreak your iOS device and lose the warranty.
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