"How much would hosting your app and doing payment processing yourself cost you a year?"<p>Ahh but I am <i>not</i> talking about the 30% Apple takes off the price of my app when sold through the Apple Store ; The AppStore itself is another sharecropper management device  but never mind that for now<p>I am talking of how much it costs me per year to put <i>my</i> program on <i>my</i> device. The commission on sales (which arguably pays for hosting and payment processing) is a separate issue.<p>The latter is arguable. The former is indefensible.<p>Look, no one is arguing <i>you</i> shouldn't sell your soul to Apple.  It is your money, go right ahead.<p>The OP asked why people balked at paying 99$ (every year). I was just explaining why some of us unenlightened developers refuse to see the light ;-).