iPhone developers claim Apple not paying up
May isn't shaping up as one of the best months for iPhone developers. A number of complaints have surfaced over the last week, from the usual App Store rejections (as in the SlingPlayer case), to developers claiming that Apple isn't paying them.
According to a TechCrunch report, a vocal group of developers is considering suing Apple for breach of contract after claiming to have not received payment for downloads of their applications.
You can see examples of complaints on developer forums at iphonedevsdk.com, where the posts indicate that some developers have not been paid for App Store sales from as far back as Fall 2008. In one instance, there are examples of e-mail between a developer and Apple. The developer's attempts to repeatedly contact Apple's finance department to complain resulted in a response from Apple claiming that the complaints "border on harassment."
It remains to be seen whether lawsuits will be filed by developers against Apple. But given Apple's outstanding revenue performance in a bad economy for the last quarter, the hugely successful iTunes App Store, and Apple's estimated $29 billion in cash reserves, we wouldn't be surprised if some developers find it hard to believe that Apple shouldn't pay them. Do you agree? Tell us what you think in the comments.
*Obviously the app store is not the only reason they are profitable, and yes I like Apple, but they have so much work to do when considering this article.
Imagine a case where it was the opposite, and the developers didn't pay money to Apple to put their software in app store. Apple would have sue them immediately, or ban them from the service.
But when you have the power, I guess you can do whatever you want.
AMEN.
I can see why some payments might be missed, the volume is more than they can handle. I am very afraid that even though Apple took the extra year to scale up the push notifications that it is going to be crushed by so many little apps doing useless things and crowding out the ones that have actual value.
The App Store is nearly in a tail spin right now. There is just too much trash in it to navigate to find useful apps. Searching for apps is probably the worst search system I have ever seen, it brings up totally unrelated apps for what I am looking for. Something has got to change.
concerned, apple should find ways to deal with all developers. Payments could be made automatic, we all know there are programs that can do that. Apple just doesn't want to pay...SUE them .
A more likely explanation is that these developers are selling very few apps, and are running afoul of a policy that only pays out when the balance reaches a certain dollar amount.
No company should be late with any invoice payments, period. Maybe next time instead of making fun of other companies in their TV commercials, Apple should pay bills on time.
I feel sorry for all developers and their hard work. Some of them don't have other income, this is BS
Looks like their accounts payable department has a serious disconnect with their accounts receivable department.
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by molotov
May 13, 2009 12:45 PM PDT
- I get charged the same day for my purchases, but they are lagging paying the developers. No excuse. This must be stopped at once. People expect Apple to be fair to every body and I want my software - if Apple wants to reach that 10 billion downloads anytime soon - they better start being fair - otherwise there will be no software to download; imagine; no baby shaker [thats gone already], no tank attack, no tap defense, no insane toleit, no jab jib, no smoking, no partying no stantinding around and looking cool while faking an incoming phone call to your Touch! This is brilliant and will go away unless Apple does their job.
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