The App Store has always struck me as an example of Joel's 'commoditize your complements' strategy.[0]

Once again: demand for a product increases when the price of its complements decreases. In general, a company’s strategic interest is going to be to get the price of their complements as low as possible. The lowest theoretically sustainable price would be the “commodity price” — the price that arises when you have a bunch of competitors offering indistinguishable goods.

Thus: $0.99 apps.

If you're feeling resentment, it's because you've been thoroughly commoditized to increase the perceived value of Apple's hardware.

(Of course it's somewhat false "value" - infinite shovelware is worth about what it costs.)

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/06/12/strategy-letter-v/