I’m going to pay 3-5% for payment processing no matter how I look at it. So paying apple 15% to handle that is acceptable to me.
It’s one of those things that should be cheaper and is too much, but better than the alternative.
The payment part is the worst part of the purchase experience for me. I play a game that has a Mac version through Epic and an iOS version. Buying on iOS is easy, one click. Buying on Mac is a pain with some modal web frame pop up to a payment processor where I have to enter my payment info every time. EVERY TIME! I’ve already logged in. They know me.
Of course the price to me is the same in both situations.
So alternate payment processors will just be shittier for users. Bad UX, riskier data, and the same price.
Unless you jumped straight from school into a company with the goal to make mad money and nothing else, some of us became developers precisely because computer technology shaped our lives and became our passion.
We want to give our users the best experience possible, and don’t really care about their email addresses and credit card numbers and shit. And Apple’s IAP is closest to the ideal system:
• Minimal clicks and no jarring exits out of the app into third-party websites
• No need to re-enter payment and personal info at multiple places
• Biometric verification
• Preserves privacy and protects financial info
• Shows all receipts and subscriptions in one place
Even if Apple took a 50% I would still want the users of my app to have access to those benefits, because that’s what I would like all other devs to give me in their apps.