It’s hard out there for a dev, what with 70% of every dollar your application makes coming back into your pocket. It used to be worse, a lot worse, with some operators taking 60% or more of the money collected via the sale of your application.
A recent survey completed by 400 North American developers finds that 80% are not satisfied with the 70/30 split the market has defaulted to. It’s a standard that Apple started, and Nokia is following it too via their Ovi Store, so is Google with the Android Market.
“Virtually all of the best known app stores have fallen in line directly with the 30/70 revenue split that Apple introduced, but there could be a big upside for any vendor bold enough to deviate,” — Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data. “If the app store is more a strategic asset than a revenue center, then providing the developer with a better revenue share model could go a long way toward promotion of that particular distribution channel and thus growth of market share for a technology.”
So who is going to be the first to give developers more, more, more? Is the Wholesale Applications Community, run by operators, going to try and steal Apple’s thunder by doing something crazy like 80/20 or even 90/10? Don’t think so. Operators have never once proved themselves to be innovative at anything. Is it going to be Apple themselves, pushing for better payouts, thus forcing everyone to catch up? Maybe.
Who’s got the balls to try something new?