Since the start of the App Store we have had people grumbling about Apple’s 30% revenue cut for apps and services sold via the App Store. And many did their best to circumvent that. Some say that the sheer market size that they can reach is worth it, since they won’t ever be able to do it themselves. Some argue that it was true in 2009 but not so much in 2018.

However most apps ended up giving in, most notably Netflix and YouTube, both of which shot to the Top Grossing List. Last month, we saw a “union” start a movement to demand a “more reasonable revenue cut” in the near future.

For the sake of argument, say, Apple stops taking in any cut at all. So instead of 70¢ for each dollar, devs get the full dollar. That’s a 1.4X multiplier.

What if developers say the bigger picture. Where is all the money coming from?

According to App Annie, US, China and Japan were responsible for almost 70% of App Store spending.

Yet how many of all apps are available in English AND Chinese AND Japanese?

So, my proposal is for developers to ask Apple to provide a dedicated translation service where developers can get, say, upto 500 UI words translated into the top 6 languages: English 🇺🇸, Chinese 🇨🇳, Japanese 🇯🇵, French 🇫🇷, German 🇩🇪, Korean 🇰🇷.

For developers, this will be a huge win. This will open up a huge user base for each app. And provide with a much bigger multiplier than the paltry 1.4X, if Apple hypothetically stopped taking a cut at all. Also it will relieve them of the burden of finding a good translation service provider, where they can rely on Apple blindly to not screw up with context-insensitive translations.

For Apple, the burden will be minimal as most of the work will be repetitive, as UI words like upload, add, photo, watch, play, pause, listen, offline, next, previous, delete, will be the ones to feature in the list of translation requests by each developer over and over again.

For Apple, the gains multiplier will be pretty much the same as developers, minus the meagre cost of hiring a few translators for the repetitive work.

For users, using other languages, it will be a fantastic win to have a much broader selection of quality apps, in their preferred language. I have heard countless tales of people being forced to use apps which are localised in English only.

So, basically, it is a win-win-win scenario. What’s not to like about it? 😄 Spread the word and maybe the (app) world will be a better place! 🤩

Follow me on Twitter @gitangular for more stories about Apple, apps and technology in general.