{"id":32469,"date":"2021-05-13T15:59:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-13T19:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=32469"},"modified":"2023-02-13T16:12:45","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T21:12:45","slug":"what-it-was-like-to-sell-apps-online-in-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2021\/05\/13\/what-it-was-like-to-sell-apps-online-in-2003\/","title":{"rendered":"What It Was Like to Sell Apps Online in 2003"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brent Simmons<\/a> (tweet<\/a>):<\/p>\n

\n

Apple likes to claim that the App Store replaced the system of selling software in physical boxes in stores and over the mail.<\/p>\n

But it’s not true.<\/p>\n

My experience selling apps before the App Store was not unique or new — it’s only interesting now because people may have forgotten this history, and younger people may never have heard it.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

We used a service called Kagi for the storefront and credit card processing. Kagi had been around since the ’90s, and it was well-known and trusted by the Mac community.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

And it was pretty easy. Easier than dealing with the App Store!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

I can’t find the link, but one of Apple’s lawyers recently argued that the reason Apple chose 30% for the App Store fee was that it wanted to do better<\/em> than the prevailing alternatives at the time. And they again tried to make it sound like they invented selling software online. I’ve used at least five different e-commerce providers since 2002<\/a>, and none of them charged more than 15% (most much less). All were easier to deal with than the App Store.<\/p>\n\n

Peter N Lewis<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Totally the same for me - except I was Kagi’s first customer and started with them in 1995, and continue doing the same to this day (other than switching to FastSpring in 2010). It wasn’t new over a decade before the App Store was released).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Tom Harrington<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I had a very similar experience. I started selling my own apps in 2002, completely online, through a web site and in-app purchase. No boxes, no stores, no mail. Downloads, emailed serial numbers, and a third-party payment service. No Apple online store.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Marcel Weiher<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Exactly the same here, with KAGI, the license strings etc. Except that PdfCompress,BookLightning, TextLightning and PostView remained in the four figures\/month. Still comfortable.<\/p>\n

If Apple claims they somehow invented online software sales, they are lying. Egregiously.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Michael Love<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I had the same experience in the mid-90s with downloadable Mac shareware, wrote a game in middle school and sold (a dozen copies or so IIRC) via Kagi; even back then, a teenager could sell software entirely online with no retail markup or gatekeeper.<\/p>\n

On mobile, my Palm app initially launched in 2001 through proto-app-store PalmGearHQ with a 20% commission, but in 2002 when it started to make serious money I went direct with my own merchant account + abandoned PalmGear entirely by 2005.<\/p>\n

But neither for software in general nor for mobile specifically did Apple bring anything new to the table with the App Store; they simply imposed taxes and regulation on an existing market that was getting along perfectly fine without them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Christopher Lloyd<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The first App Store I’m aware of<\/a> appeared on NeXTStep in the early 90s<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

John Allsopp<\/a>:<\/p>\n

We first sold software for the Mac solely online also via Kagi in 1995<\/p>\n

At a conference around that time an Apple exec said when I told him ‘no one will ever buy software on the internet’ :-)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Craig Hockenberry<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Kagi was responsible for the beginning of the Iconfactory’s software business. It’s been going strong for almost 25 years now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

David Sinclair<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

When I started \n@dejal\n in 1991, people mailed me cash and checks — to New Zealand! — and I had to take them to the foreign exchange at my bank. Later I processed credit cards via paper forms. When I started with Kagi, it was like magic; so much easier.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Brent Simmons<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Apple itself sold software online back before the App Store — because of course they did. Everybody did.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n