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Comment by Steko | Hacker News Reader

People keep saying Apple adds no value but bringing millions of paying customers and a trusted storefront does in fact have lots of value for most apps. This is exactly the value Steam brings on PC. Being locked down or not is a red herring to the value argument, people sell on Steam because of simple math: the millions of additional paying customers outweighs the commission Valve demands.

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Yes, but there comes a point when it just becomes rent seeking. It's digital nature for there to be one portal that leads you to everything.

Valve has competitors in the PC games storefront market. On iOS, there is (for all practical reasons) no other storefront. People would be stuck on the App Store even if they were to charge something ridiculous like 50%, because there's no where else to go.

Yes, but if that were the case, there would be no apps on the App Store.

> Valve has competitors in the PC games storefront market. On iOS, there is (for all practical reasons) no other storefront.

Predictably, this is where the goalposts have moved[1] but it's really orthogonal to whether there's value or not. Also as pointed out elsewhere, Steam is in a competitive market and charges the same commission. Also in Apple's favor is the well attested to value of the App Store vs Google Play and others in terms of raw revenue.

[1] 'Predictably' as in "Being locked down or not is a red herring to the value argument" in grandparent

I’m surprised there is no backlash from independent iOS developers. Not only do they have 30% taken away, they have the yearly $100 fee,they need expensive Apple products to make the app, apps have be priced low because consumers expect low priced amazing apps. Then you have to market the app to stand out.

Being locked down is the source of the value on many cases. Being locked down and curated means that when someone looks for an app they find that app, and not that app and a dozen lookalikes with similar names, half of which are outright malware. Being locked down and curated means that stuff just works and does so predictably, and will continue to work.

That’s the value add IMO, not the aluminum case, the Apple logo, or anything else. A locked garden isn’t perfect, but it’s better than an open sewer.

> Being locked down is the source of the value on many cases. ... Being locked down and curated means that stuff just works and does so predictably, and will continue to work.

The Apple App Store does not fill all those conditions. In fact, I can safely say it does not do some of things you say, including the part about stuff just working.

The Apple App store isn’t perfect, it just works better and has less malware than any App Store in the history of the world.

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