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Apple App Store Prices Rise in UK, India and Turkey (bbc.com)
Apple is to put up the price it charges for apps in the UK, India and Turkey. From a report on BBC: UK costs will numerically match those of the US, meaning that a program that costs $0.99 will now be 99p. That represents a 25% rise over the previous currency conversion, which was 79p. "Price tiers on the App Store are set internationally on the basis of several factors, including currency exchange rates, business practices, taxes, and the cost of doing business," it said. "These factors vary from region to region and over time." The rise will also affect in-app purchases but not subscription charges. The cost of a $0.99 app will become 80 rupees in India, representing a 33% rise from the previous price of 60 rupees.
With the Pound now trading at around $1.23, and the UK app store incorporating VAT at 20% while the US store doesn't include sales tax in the list priced, this sounds about right. Certainly the "UK premium" is nothing like the 50-100% that wasn't uncommon a decade or so ago.
Apple look simply to be pricing in the devaluation in Sterling that has occurred since the beginning of Brexit. I'm not sure anyone can find much to fault with that. The real question is how quickly Apple will move to reduce prices if/when the Pound recovers?
Do the developers still get paid 70% with these increased prices?
I assume the percentage is the same, but, interestingly, if you are not a US developer with mainly US sales, the currency conversions Apple does further reduce this. For example I am UK based and I have a little app which sells mainly in the US, and I end up closer to 60% than 70% after the conversions. I'd tell you more precisely, but it varies a bit per month and it is hard to calculate because the reports are a bit convoluted in that part (at least they were the last time I checked, almost a year ago). If it was not a hobby app and I actually expected to make a living off of it, I'd be rather annoyed... Still not the worst part of the Apple ecosystem...
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its basically charging arbirtarily different prices in different regions and pocketing the difference. I am sure a US app maker will still get paid in USD.
As an app developer, I can correct your incorrect assumptions.
Apps on the app store come in different "price tiers" from free, to $0.99, to $1.99 etc. Apple translates these prices for countries other than the USA. Mostly this is done by multiplying or dividing by the exchange rate, adding VAT where necessary, and rounding to a nice even amount (if they calculated the correct price should be £2.04 or £1.94, then the actual price will be £1.99, for example).
When the customer pays, Apple removes the VAT which they pay to the tax office of that country, takes their 30% or 15% cut, and then converts the money into the currency of the developer, and that's the amount paid.
Apple also tries to keep the prices constant for long times - they could have done the UK change six months ago, so for six months UK citizens actually got a rebate.
The users pay a fair price - each user pays an amount so that the same money ends up in the developer's pockets. So users are not "fucked". And developers get roughly the same amount of money wherever you buy an app. Right now, developers got 20% less if you bought in the UK instead of the USA, for example, and that has now been corrected.