According to Australian magazine Smarthouse, Apple has changed its iPod royalty model to a flat USD $4.00 price per unit sold to interface with Apple's dock connector.
Originally, Apple charged 1.5% of the wholesale price but when the iPod took off and Apple began making their own accessories, third party manufacturers saw the royalty escalate to 10%.
Apple has refused to comment on the fee. The move is set to favor the manufacturers of high end iPod accessories such as Bose, Jamo, Altec Lansing and Hi Fi manufacturers who are selling iPod connector or docking stations. It's also set to please who late last year were angry with Apple over the move to increase license fees.
The move is expected to not only help third party manufacturers, but also simplify Apple's management of the program.
Apple has unveiled a whopping nine new products so far this March, including an iPhone 17e, iPad Air models with the M4 chip, MacBook Air models with the M5 chip, MacBook Pro models with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, the all-new MacBook Neo, an updated Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, AirPods Max 2, and now the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2.
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