I really like to get more HN users to share what other cloud hosting options other than AWS. We use Rackspace and so does Posterous. Posted a discussion here but not sure why its not showing up yet.
I read that 200k was the cost that bnter had incurred because of the deal. I don't know what else there could be other than legal fees. Maybe a lease for a much bigger space that they had needed.
A free account will allow just one app, and for developer with multiple apps, it will be a reasonable subscription free. We're also considering other forms of revenue such as ad rev share for developers but that's where tracking ad revenue becomes a little tricky
really can't advice you without knowing more about your data/service..
value is very subjective, what amazon would pay for pennies might be dimes to others and what others would pay for dimes could be pennies or worthless to amazon.
I've been working on this project on the side and now I'm at the point of getting close to a golden release. AppDK is a Dev Kit for iOS developers and our goal is to make developing better mobile apps with as little effort as possible.
We're launching in a few weeks and we'll be happy to talk to iOS devs on HN to get feedback, suggestions or anything to try out. Hope to get feedback from everyone else here on HN, if you got any ideas that you want to throw our way free feel to email me AppDevKit at Google's Email Service.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2482355