Frustrated iOS Developers Form Union to Protest Apple
A few years ago a bunch of Android application developers rose up against "the man" and attempted to unionize to protest the way Google handled their application developers. They wanted a better community for developers, including fair pricing and legal support. Now, the Apple marketplace developers appear to be seeking similar goals, as there is talk of unionization.
With the WWDC going on this week, this is the perfect time for rising up. A site called App Developer Union implies that a group of iOS developers has banded together to create a union. They have started a Twitter account to carry on the conversation. They have a simple list of demands, based in general logic & fairness surrounding their situation. From the website:
Apple is not taking care of their ecosystem of developers. Here is our simple list of needs:
1. Put a stop to the cloning of apps: developers give sweat & tears to creating them and it's not fair, or good for the ecosystem, when cloned apps become promoted apps.
2. Resolve the Lodsys patent issue by one or more of the following:
Show the developer community your license to the Lodsys patent so developers can make a fully informed decision about whether to take a license or to rely on Apple's
Indemnify app developers against Lodsys (and others) on your platform
Pay for the developers' patent license(s) out of your cut
3. Get to something more equitable than that 30% share you are taking from app sales; the more money app developers make, the better off the ecosystem!
Understandably they are fed up with the application cloning that goes on without any kind of strict regulation, and Apple not stepping in to deal with patent trolls, who tend to go straight after the developer. Also, they want a change to the 30 percent cut that Apple takes on each app sale. More than half of all developers lost money creating iOS apps, hoping for that one big hit that brings them bank. So when hunted by patent trolls, it's reasonable to think developers would have Apple backing them.
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati