Doug's Mailbag: App Thoughts
Readers share their opinions on two entirely different aspects of the app world:
I have a love/hate relationship with the app store concept. I love that my app can be found and that I can find other apps. But I hate that I have to give the store owner 30 percent for hosting my app. I bet even high-end marketing firms don't take 30 percent of a product's sales for a fee. Heck, even the government doesn't tax sales at 30 percent. But since it seems that our only choices in the future will be to use the app store or develop for some other platform I am hoping for in-app sales or subscriptions that would not be subject to the app store tax.
I like the idea of a declining percentage but think Microsoft should have taken it further with high volume apps (like Angry Birds) eventually getting to the point where Microsoft's cut equals their bandwidth bill for distribution since having those popular apps on the store will drive other purchases and becomes advertising for the app store.
-Scott
I'll just say that after using both Google Apps and Office 365 extensively I have pretty much abandoned both of them in favor of desktop apps and Sugar Sync to ensure my files are accessible at all times. Our university has a big pipe to the Internet and at various times the slowdowns for getting work done is just too much for me (I admit to being a bit obsessive -- some people at work and home openly call me Monk). And while I know that privacy is largely an illusion I still try to keep what I can on premises and share only when there is a very clear advantage, and I don't see the advantage of either of these services yet.
-Mark
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Posted by Doug Barney on 02/06/2012 at 1:19 PM