CLUB INTERVIEWS

A brief chat with friends of Club MacStories.

We’ve seen a lot of confusion among people about Delta and AltStore PAL. Could you explain why Delta is available in AltStore in the EU and not Apple’s App Store?

You can thank the Core Technology Fee for that one. The CTF applies to both downloads in AltStore and the App Store, so we couldn’t release it for free in the [EU] App Store like the rest of the world — or else we’d be on the hook for millions of Euros. And because the CTF is an annual fee, we’d have to pick a price that could safely afford multiple years of updates… which would make the comparison to Delta’s free price everywhere even more unfavorable. Plus, a subscription wouldn’t help, either, because there’s no way to limit downloads to just subscribers.

Meanwhile, AltStore’s €1.50/year subscription fee covers the CTF for both AltStore and Delta, so there’s no risk of us bankrupting ourselves.