>Taking a cut of say, 3%, to keep the app store running is forgivable. But 30% digging into users pocket is unpardonable.
What makes you think that 3% cut is enough?
What makes you think that 3% cut is enough?
But Apple can ask whatever they want. They can't block side-loading though. That's the uncompetitive part.
You can run your store and pick whatever terms you like. You can't use your marketshare in hardware sales to bundle a forced store.
Imagine Tesla charging you 30% of any grocery shopping (i.e. would refuse to open the doors if the store didn't share 30% of its gross revenue).
I mean, its literally, textbook anti-competitive. The App Store as a store isn't competing fairly, on its own merits.
Also keep in mind, that this whole getting raped with transaction fees is a 'america-only' thing. This is much better regulated in the rest of the world.
Specifically the costs are fixed, so anything that is a percentage is just fucking nonsense. It doesn't cost more to charge 5 euro's than it does to charge 1 euro. It uses the same electricity, the same personel costs. There is a point where its get more expensive because of risk management, but thats above 100 euro per transaction.
Percentages on transactions are generally only allowed when its a loan. Which is why Americans are always buying things with credit cards ("loaning the money"). Most people pay for things with their own money, not with a loan. (i.e. direct bank transfer). And those transactions have a fixed transaction costs. Worst case 1 euro (low-volume, your personal webshop) all the way down to 5 euro cent (high-volume, i.e. the supermarket).
So explain to me where the hell you get your 3% from? You just sound like an already boiled frog saying 'are you sure we can survive in cold water?'
They're not just a payment provider though. They offer infrastructure, promotion, a huge locked-in userbase with the means to pay for software, etc
Yeah, the government has a monopoly on that.
> I can see private companies doing the same.
You must be American then. This is where all this friction comes from. Corporations aren't people, nor should they be government.
This is not because the people who work there are bad people or something, but because they are legally binded to do whatever maximizes profits. They are by definition not operating in the common good (they are not supposed to!). There is no democratic oversight.
You can imagine companies doing the same. As a European, i can't. It's a problem. And its fake innovation anyway. Where is the America that did real research and real innovation? That put people on the moon? These days all you guys are good for is 'bussiness model innovations'. Ways to cheat, extort or externalize the costs. Quality of life is just going downhill the more of these type of products one uses. Technology is regressing.
Side loading is not the same as installing apps as a developer for testing.
2nd, sure you need a passcode etc to accept the install, this every-now-n-then gets by passed.
You can't. You can't know if whatsapp was replaced with whatsapp that syphon your data.
"Don't side load then." is a poor argument.
30% of revenue is like taxes, you can build infrastructure for a country.