A group calling itself the Developers Union is calling on Apple to allow free trials for all apps, and increase the piece of the action developers receive from app sales.
The group is led by Jake Schumacher, the director of “App: The Human Story,” developers Roger Odgen and Loren Morris, and Brent Simmons, who created apps like NetNewsWire and MarsEdit.
In an open letter to Apple, the group said:
Dear Apple,
We believe that people who create great software should be able to make a living doing it. So we created The Developers Union to advocate for sustainability in the App Store.
Today, we are asking Apple to publicly commit — by the tenth anniversary of the App Store this July — to allowing free trials for all apps in the App Stores before July 2019. After that, we’ll start advocating for a more reasonable revenue cut and other community-driven, developer-friendly changes.
The fledgling group hopes to attract at least 20,000 members by before Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference kick off in June.
Although Apple already allows free app trials, they are restricted to subscription services like streaming services. Allowing free trials for all apps could lure users into trying the app without needing to pay up front for an app they haven’t tasted.
Apple currently wets its beak to the tune of 30% for app sales. While the Cupertino firm will likely resist increasing the amount paid to developers, it could be faced with increased pressure due to Microsoft’s recent announcement that it will greatly increase developers’ cut of the action.
