This is just depressing.
How would you react? Suing sounds too extreme. Not doing anything... That number just seems too big. Has anyone read the language of the agreement Amazon developers agree to?
App developer gets screwed out of $55,000
This is just depressing.
How would you react? Suing sounds too extreme. Not doing anything... That number just seems too big. Has anyone read the language of the agreement Amazon developers agree to?
Nothing depressing about it. Those were the terms they agreed to in order to be placed on the front page. They were not screwed out of $55k, their sales before and after show that their app is not very popular and would not make even close to that if they had not agreed to list their app for free on the front page. This is really just a story about some people with a mobile app making a potentially stupid decision.
This is just depressing.
How would you react? Suing sounds too extreme. Not doing anything... That number just seems too big. Has anyone read the language of the agreement Amazon developers agree to?
Yes it perhaps sucks, but the thing is theyre not being screwed out of 55k since if everyone who downloaded it, would of downloaded it if they had to pay.
Actually now I think about it all this shows is, this highlights how few apps are being downloaded at amazon store
This is just depressing.
How would you react? Suing sounds too extreme. Not doing anything... That number just seems too big. Has anyone read the language of the agreement Amazon developers agree to?
Remember that one time?
Yes, remember this one time, where IGDA specifically mentioned that was a flaw with the Amazon agreement? And people scoffed, and others tried to get it changed? And Amazon said they clarified their agreement so developers would know what they were signing? Yeah, those were good times. I remember them, too.
That's why all good business people will read contracts. If you are publishing games rather than writing code, then you are a business person, and too many developers forget that.
That was rather foolish of the developer to misunderstand the terms of their agreements. It is a mistake good business people will learn from before they make it themselves.
Publish on the Amazon AppStore and you sign away your rights to set your own pricing, seems foolish to me. Amazon is just trying to leverage desperate app store developers to pump up their AppStore for their own tablet release later this year IMO. What other product does Amazon require the vendor to sign away their price control to sale on Amazon Store? Oh none.. I guess App Developers are just special.
We need to publicize stories like this so others will atleast be aware of the pitfalls.. Personally I can't see what the benefit the Amazon AppStore has over Googles or Apples that you would sign away your right to assign your own pricing model. Amazon knows best? Amazon is out for their interest not the apps developers IMO.
-ddn
We need to publicize stories like this so others will atleast be aware of the pitfalls.. Personally I can't see what the benefit the Amazon AppStore has over Googles or Apples that you would sign away your right to assign your own pricing model. Amazon knows best? Amazon is out for their interest not the apps developers IMO.
-ddn
There's no point to trying to make people aware of pitfalls when they don't read the contracts they sign. Yes they're confusing, so if you don't feel confident that you totally get what you're considering signing, then have a lawyer take a look at it for you. If you sign it and don't care about the terms, you'll have a hard time getting anyone to care about your complaints after the fact. It's not like this was the Apple iTunes update license either-- this was a business transaction.
Amazon did this with books too, and there was a flap between them and the authors who felt that the books were trying to sell their work too cheaply. The idea was that Amazon was trying to support themselves, rather than maximize profits for the authors. Well, duh. It may not be the coolest choice for Amazon to make if you want them to market and sell your work for you, but it is its own company and is interested in its own success. It's not an agency for authors or programmers.
Besides, now the developers can market themselves as "The makers of [whatever], 100,000 copies downloaded!". They wouldn't have been able to say that otherwise, because they would have kept selling a few copies a day. Additionally, the developers chose to sell on a "me too" platform. Amazon's going to have to do something to build popularity; they're going head to head with Apple and Google. That's a crappy place to be, and if ridiculous deals on apps is their strategy, it's better than trying to beat the AppStore and Android Marketplace on their own terms, since they've already saturated an awful lot of the market.
Amazon did this with books too, and there was a flap between them and the authors who felt that the books were trying to sell their work too cheaply. The idea was that Amazon was trying to support themselves, rather than maximize profits for the authors. Well, duh. It may not be the coolest choice for Amazon to make if you want them to market and sell your work for you, but it is its own company and is interested in its own success. It's not an agency for authors or programmers.
Besides, now the developers can market themselves as "The makers of [whatever], 100,000 copies downloaded!". They wouldn't have been able to say that otherwise, because they would have kept selling a few copies a day. Additionally, the developers chose to sell on a "me too" platform. Amazon's going to have to do something to build popularity; they're going head to head with Apple and Google. That's a crappy place to be, and if ridiculous deals on apps is their strategy, it's better than trying to beat the AppStore and Android Marketplace on their own terms, since they've already saturated an awful lot of the market.
That part I don't mind so much. The part I would mind is if you're not able to opt out of being a free promotional download - as the writer mentions he loses money by having to support more users it is not the same as it being like your MP3 album being free for a day.
Publish on the Amazon AppStore and you sign away your rights to set your own pricing, seems foolish to me.
Author
Not only could they not decline, but they couldn't even take the app off of the market... unless they can somehow work advertisement into the app, that's a lot of people to support for free.
Not only could they not decline, but they couldn't even take the app off of the market... unless they can somehow work advertisement into the app, that's a lot of people to support for free.
Bullshit. Read the linked story.
[color=#444444][font=Helvetica,]All this seemed way too one sided to us, Amazon is being predatory here, and asking developers (who are often desperate for exposure) to give away their app, in order to promote Amazon. A heated debate broke out in our office about whether we should or not. I was firmly against, my business partner for. In the end we agreed that we had entered the world of Android development as an experiment, and it would seem silly not to add more data to the experiment we were conducting. The day of our promotion came[/quote][/font]
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[color=#444444][font=Helvetica,]Emphasis mine. They not only knew that they would not get paid, they discussed and agreed that it was worth it. There is no story here, just some people whining about not getting money they didn't deserve anyway.[/font]
Author
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[color=#1C2837][size=2]Bullshit. Read the linked story.[color=#1C2837][/quote]
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Ahem:
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[color=#444444][font=Helvetica,]Update: (and this one surprised us) you can’t remove apps from their store! You have to ask them for permission via an email. Every other store lets you remove apps from sale.[/font][color=#1C2837][size=2][/quote]
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Ahem:
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[color=#444444][font=Helvetica,]Update: (and this one surprised us) you can’t remove apps from their store! You have to ask them for permission via an email. Every other store lets you remove apps from sale.[/font][color=#1C2837][size=2][/quote]
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