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Re: [CM] subtle exodus from the Mac app store

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On 2014-10-25 10:11:20 +0000, D.D. said:

> Oregonian Haruspex wrote:
>> I don't believe that the "App Economy" is a bust - on the contrary it has
>> replaced the traditional software retailer for most people.  I haven't bought
>> boxed software in years.  I don't even feel guilty about the much lower 
>> prices -
>> after the store, the distributor, the publisher, and the other middle men took
>> their cut how much do you think a small developer took home from a $50 boxed
>> software title?  I would guess somewhere between a nickel and a quarter.  These
>> days he gets a third of the price that he sets himself!
> 
> The vast majority of traditional boxed software/games sold at retailers 
> was made by people employed full-time as developers, and there was no 
> lack of jobs to go around thanks to the large number of small & 
> mid-size publishers. I don't know how common indie developers that got 
> offers from publishers were, just that they were given highly 
> competitive rates as the publisher wouldn't bother unless they felt it 
> would be a hit.

I would figure that most software developers, probably way over 90%, 
worked in-house on custom applications not for sale, and not for 
software publishers selling boxed software at retail outlets.  I don't 
doubt that some of these guys lost their jobs, but the industry average 
salary for a programmer is still pretty respectable so I don't think 
they are hurting that much.

> So the end of the traditional boxed software market actually did hurt 
> average developers, since it (along with outsourcing) meant it became 
> much harder to find a job, making it possible for publishers to 
> underpay & overwork the relative few people they hire.

I think you can probably blame outsourcing almost completely here.

> That said, are app stores really responsible for the loss of 
> traditional/boxed software?  It seemed to me like there were relatively 
> few computer titles on the shelves years before Windows 8 even had a 
> preview release. (I don't know how most people were getting their 
> software, though; I haven't had the funds to justify buying any since 
> long before I switched to Linux.)

Windows is so late to the application store party that it's barely 
worth mentioning, and I don't think they actually sell much there.  I 
think probably Amazon sells more software than computer stores these 
days, and most software can also be purchased and downloaded instantly 
from the developer's site as well.

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[CM] subtle exodus from the Mac app store RS Wood  <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-10-22 21:35 +0000
  Re: [CM] subtle exodus from the Mac app store Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-10-22 16:49 -0700
    Re: [CM] subtle exodus from the Mac app store "D.D." <usenet.xyzzyx@spamgourmet.com> - 2014-10-25 03:11 -0700
      Re: [CM] subtle exodus from the Mac app store Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-10-25 19:27 -0700

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