How did you jump from $99/year to $330/yr in sales per developer?

I think it means that 30% of 330/yr , Apple would lose revenue unless each developer did that per year.

99 / 0.3 = 330

It's what a developer would need to create in sales for Apple to make 99 bucks from their 30% cut.

He's talking about revenue for Apple. Apple takes a 30% cut. 30% of $330 = $99.

With Apple's tax, a developer needs to sell that much a year to break even on the membership fee.

That's what I thought but wouldn't that be $165?

How did you end up at $165? That's $99 / 0.6, not $99 / 03. Apple's "tax" is 30%, isn't it?

$165 is your breakeven point where your profits after "tax" are equal to the annual fee, at which point you are in the black and making a profit on incremental sales.

Oh wait that was dumb, the 30% tax means the breakeven point is $141.43.

Also it seems possible now that the GP was speaking from Apple's perspective, not the developer's.

Oh wait, you're the GP. Sorry, I was confused about the point of the discussion.

Wouldn't that be less? Apple gets the 30%, the devs get 70% so they'd have to sell less than $330 to break even.

It's about Apple, not the developer.

For Apple to make $99 of your sales (not accounting for taxes etc), you'd need to generate a volume of sales of which 30% would amount to $99, i.e. $99 / 0.3 = $330.

If you're asking "how much does a developer need to make in sales every year to recoup their membership fee" that's different: $99 / 0.7 ≈ $142 (rounded up). But that's kinda orthogonal to Apple's interests.

$99/(1-.3) = $141.43

$99 your cut used to cover the program fee

$42.42 Apple’s cut

The ratio of the two is almost exactly 70:30