The Epic Games lawsuit against the Apple App Store continues. And this week began the tour of Apple witnesses, where Phil Schiller had the opportunity to take the stand. Among other things, Schiller said that face-to-face WWDCs cost around $ 50 million every year. At least, until last year, it stood in digital format due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A cost of $ 50 million for each WWDC
The executive named Apple Fellow last year is responsible for the App Store and events organized by Apple. is one of the most important testimonies of the trial. From the protocol, they have the relevant part of the testimony on the cost of a WWDC for Apple:
Apple spends around $ 50 million to host its annual developer conference, known as WWDC, every summer. […] Schiller was asked how much Apple is spending [en una WWDC] and whether the cost is built into the running costs of the App Store. He said it was not included. Apple lawyers spent considerable time debunking the testimony of experts at Epic, where financial researcher Ted Barnes estimated the App Store’s operating margin in 2019 at 78%.
Obviously, the 50 million figure applies to the physical version of the event, which would include a lot of things. From renting the conference building in San José to catering for developers, security, marketing, super-fast Wi-Fi for many people, room adaptati on and long etc. All this for more than the week that the event lasts
The event is not free for developers, who has to pay $ 1599 to go. The event has a capacity of 6,000 attendees, although some students attend with a free scholarship, so we’d be talking about revenues of between $ 8 million and $ 9 million (insufficient to cover the cost of the event, according to Schiller). Transport and accommodation are also the responsibility of the promoter, so the final cost is high, although those who have come agree that it is well worth it.
More details on the Video Partner Program and the Small Developer Program
In addition to indicating the cost of an event like WWDC, Schiller touched on other topics, as noted in 9to5Mac. The Apple Video Partner program was one of them, where streamers What voluntarily joining has a number of advantages in exchange for a reduced commission. Schiller assured that this program was born from the proposal of the applications themselves, so that they can maintain their own subscriber bases in exchange for greater integration into the Apple TV application.
The Apple Fellow also reported that the small business program on the App Store covers 90% of developers, allowing them to benefit from a reduced commission of 15%. These are multi-million dollar companies, like Epic Games with Fortnite, those who cannot benefit from this program. The executive also revealed that it had been trying to promote the program for a long time, but that due to money laundering and fraud reasons it had not been able to mobilize it. After the Epic case broke, he got the show approved.
In addition to all this, the head of the App Store revealed that Apple is preparing the construction of a building dedicated to developers. A place designed to help you develop your applications, without giving more details. This is something we could officially see in the upcoming WWDC 2021.
