Apple wanted developers to jack up prices in 2017
 

Another game of monopoly?

Business Insider has found evidence that convicted monopolist Apple attempted to encourage app store developers to jack up their prices and move to a subscription model in 2017.

Apple invited a group of app developers to a secret April 2017 meeting in New York’s Tribeca district, asking them to move from selling apps at low prices to renting app access through subscriptions.

This move was intended to keep users paying for apps “on a regular basis, putting money into developer coffers on a regular schedule”, the report claims. Since Apple gets a huge chunk of developer money from App store sales, Jobs' Mob would have made even more money from the increased margins.

If the report is true, it means that Apple was acting against the interests of its customers to line its own pockets. It is a similar situation which happened when Steve Jobs colluded with publishers to jack up the prices of eBooks. That cartel was rumbled, and Apple was made to pay a fine, even if it denied doing anything wrong.

The Tame Apple press insists that this is all part of a super cool plan by Apple to encourage developers to convert one-time app purchases into recurring draws on customers’ accounts. Apple wants developers to “create sustainable business models, instead of selling high-quality software for a few dollars or monetising through advertising”. However, that is not really in the customers' interest. Some app customers purchase are tools that they use only intermittently, so they are unwilling either to pay high prices or maintenance fees that might keep the tools updated.

https://fudzilla.com/news/46949-appl...up-prices-2017