First, no it is not 3$. Apple takes a 30% cut, and requires a yearly fee to keep the app on the store. There is also a separate server cost, and a cost associated with paying an engineer. The actual cost is 5 dollars.
Second, there is only one single month to make all changes. Pricing was announced only 30 days prior.
That means payment setup, subscription changes, app update and payment approval requests, etc all need to happen within 30days. This is literally impossible.
Third, there are people who have paid a for a yearly subscription. (10$ total) Those funds either need to be refunded in it's entirety, or be allowed to run out first. Both will not occur within 30 days. That is literally impossible for apollo dev to do. That's just an issue of how refunding works and timelines.
If it is the latter, the dev will be incurring ~50,000 usd in costs every month. This is impossible to sustain.
Either way, there are app store rules that must be followed first. Reddit's timeline is incompatible with them.
And finally, regardless of API costs! reddit has on multiple occasions, defamed Apollo dev. Why would he continue working with a company that makes false blackmail accusations, then doubles down after evidence is provided?
He also indicated that it's not even $3, people who pay for Apollo Premium/Ultra tend to use the app more, and their usage would be in the $5-$10 range. So basically he'd be losing a bunch of users who brought the average down, refunding those in the middle, and his entire business would be catering to the most expensive users. $15 would be more of a breakeven, and at that point, what the point of running a tiny app for free?
$3/user/mo is also the average cost across all of his (active?) users - you can bet that if the users start having to pay the people who use Reddit constantly will be more likely to subscribe than the ones who use it once a month.
There might genuinely not be a single price that pays for itself, and usage-based pricing might be required.
People are unintentionally grading him on a _huge_ curve, essentially "what if...all I had to do was code and App Store?" That would be nice, I get the impression he's had a fun ride so far where that was pretty much it. Now that the thing he's selling isn't free, he can pound the table and quit, or run the business.
- $3/user is the Apollo author’s projected costs. Dunno what the rest of that means. “The App Store charges 30%!!!” simply isn’t relevant other than for devs projecting anything that’s hurt them over the last decade into this story
- What are “all the changes”? My understanding is he’d release an update with a new API key with a CC attached.
- If it’s gravely important that the yearly subscriptions who have paid already get free Reddit, why is he shutting down?
- Why is it impossible to give a finite list of customers a refund in 30 days? Again, isn’t he doing it anyway?
- I’ve developed on the App Store since day 30 and don’t know what App Store rule you’re referring to.
- I think your claim is Apple might not let him get an update out? That’s fine. Do what everyone else does and _don’t add the credit card to the old API key_.
- He can’t afford $60K/month? Why not? Charge more than costs. That’s how business works, you don’t have an inalienable right to free APIs.
- he can’t afford $60K/month, redux: he bring in millions a year, right?
- His two claims are:
1. he was offended because Reddit said the app is inefficient - he won’t put it into quotes so I’m guessing it was just generic “you could optimize your api calls” advice
2. He made a very bad joke that he frames as “mostly joking” and frankly, was blackmail. We’re seeing the other side of it now.
>Why is it impossible to give a finite list of customers a refund in 30 days? Again, isn’t he doing it anyway?
if that's all you got out of the comment, you clearly aren't trying to see the POV of the app developer. He's under no obligation to keep working for a company that has at this point slandered him behind his back and he can shut down his app whenever he wants.
You are free to judge him but I don't think he's losing sleep over internet comments trying to claim he is disingenuous. Personally, I see no fault on his end, especially when Reddit is dealing the cards to begin with.
Do you understand your comments are focused on making judgements about _personalities_, not business decisions? Do you see how they assume others are too?
Since you've indulged, please, allow me:
Your comments are aggro and focused on personalities and people. I don't find them useful or interesting.
Yes, I know my stance on this isn't the common one. I have been taking it for a few days on several forums.
I've obviously seen a bunch of people who were happy to dismiss everything I said. Your replies stand out as the only ones that were wildly off-topic and myopic. You are strangely focused on social dynamics and stack-ranking strangers that will never meet, and assume the strangers are doing the same.
>Do you understand your comments are focused on making judgements about _personalities_, not business decisions?
You chose to comment on a personality and not a business decision. So I responded in kind. To remind you of your comment:
>I just don't like how many people I see bamboozled by him. Extremely manipulative behavior.
This is not a comment about a business decision. This isn't even a comment about Apollo nor Christian. So yea, I reply simply to voice my disagreement with this assertion as you have indeed brought me into your odd argument.Tit for tat.
And since you asked for my useless and non-interesting opinion by proxy: As a fellow dev (not reddit app dev, just general person who has worked on tech only for it to fail due to powers outside my control), I do empathize with here. Trying to and spin my own emotions as being bamboozled is dishonest, inflammatory, and in my singular case, wrong.
I honestly can't be bothered to answer any of your claims. You obviously don't read links attached to comments. So read this, or just ignore it. Your choice.
First, no it is not 3$. Apple takes a 30% cut, and requires a yearly fee to keep the app on the store. There is also a separate server cost, and a cost associated with paying an engineer. The actual cost is 5 dollars.
Second, there is only one single month to make all changes. Pricing was announced only 30 days prior.
That means payment setup, subscription changes, app update and payment approval requests, etc all need to happen within 30days. This is literally impossible.
Third, there are people who have paid a for a yearly subscription. (10$ total) Those funds either need to be refunded in it's entirety, or be allowed to run out first. Both will not occur within 30 days. That is literally impossible for apollo dev to do. That's just an issue of how refunding works and timelines.
If it is the latter, the dev will be incurring ~50,000 usd in costs every month. This is impossible to sustain.
Either way, there are app store rules that must be followed first. Reddit's timeline is incompatible with them.
And finally, regardless of API costs! reddit has on multiple occasions, defamed Apollo dev. Why would he continue working with a company that makes false blackmail accusations, then doubles down after evidence is provided?
https://old.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/144f6xm/apollo_w...