Shawn posted this last night, but this hits very close to home for me, wanted to add my 2 cents.

Matt Gemmell:

No company has done as much damage to the perceived value of software, and the sustainability of being an independent developer, as Apple.

Not that other companies wouldn’t have done the same thing — they would have. It’s just that Apple was the successful one.

It’s resolutely the fault of us as consumers, and it’s actively encouraged by the App Store.

This is a scorcher. At its heart, this is about the iOS App Store’s race to the bottom, price-wise, and the difficulty of making a living as a developer in a “pennies for your work” market.

Matt does an excellent job laying out all the details. A core argument:

Has Apple created a huge market, in terms of potential customers? Absolutely. It’s just done so at the expense of its platform-invested developer community. Judging by the company’s value and income, it was a very wise move, and you can justify it on that basis if you choose. But don’t ignore the reality of the situation. Apple is not a benevolent entity; your human-centric partner in aesthetics and ethos. If that was ever true at all.

Apple created the App Store. Is it their responsibility to ensure that the people whose work they benefit from, on whose backs they ride, have the ability to earn a living? Are developers in the same “fair trade” category as the miners who dig the rare earths that go into each and every iPhone?

Matt cocludes with this about the Mac App Store, which offers an economic model based on far fewer users and much higher pricing:

For developers who target the Mac, the last segment of the glass-and-aluminium Cupertino hardware line-up to still have plausibly sustainable economics, there’s only one course of action: pray that Apple remains disinterested.

Still chewing on all this. Lots to process. But thought this was worth sharing.