But even if developers opt not to use Apple’s App Store or payment system, they will still be required to pay a “core technology fee” of 50 euro cents per user account per year.
How can this be accepted? You don't use any Apple infrastructure but you owe them money. And it's not like phone owners were not paying more than multiple times the real cost of their devices to Apple.
Pure greediness in action.
Isn't Apple's gross margin closer to 45%?
I would also suggest that the "real cost" isn't just component and manufacturing cost, and should include amortized R&D, etc.
if you sideload an app you are still taking advantage of apple's UI, user base, API SDKs, etc. and apple did enter into a relationship with its users which it wants to protect, in terms of security, privacy, and functionality of the device.
if apple wants to protect the enclave, for example, by ensuring alternate store apps use its APIs, that makes sense. this was never about running arbitrary code on iPhone; that's not what gatekeeper status or the DMA was meant to provide.
apple is like 22% of the market in europe. where's all the furor about every other business? the 78% owner also has a lot of issues, but i understand that apple is just so hated for being a company whose products people enjoy that don't get canceled after one year of operation.
also, the DMA doesn't say that apple can't make profit. the EU is still a capitalist society, and until there is a regulation that says what companies can and can't charge for phones, developer entitlements, services, then... there's not much to be done.
lastly, if there were no fees or hurdles or restrictions for alternate app stores then every single large company (not just gatekeepers) would open one so they could plaster their ads, make their own profit, drive users to their own stuff, and basically capture them in their fiefdom. and the DMA makes no provision as to how alternate markets need to behave. i and probably many many others do not want meta or msft or tencent or whomever to steal data, use underhanded business practices, ship shitty code, and do basically anything they want (that apple nor its users could control or do anything about) and that's just wrong.
openness is good, but if the cost is that chrome takes over the world like IE again and that meta can spy on iOS users and drain their batteries like no tomorrow, and force users to use their NFC payment system and secrets manager and whatever other ridiculous crap in order to use their social network, please stop. the DMA has failed if that is the case. we'll head back to the 90s and dumbphone era when you were trapped to use, see, or suffer from terrible and insecure 3rd party applications.
the one thing that cannot be argued is how good apple is at data protection and user privacy. please don't ruin that for millions because spotify wants to earn more money.
the reason apple doesnt pay carriers is that the market has changed and handset makers have more power. also phones work on wifi too ;)
I was about to come up with a similar analogy.
The horrific example is Auto Makers charging each time you drive or take a passenger in your car.
Or how about charging to use a Sofa every time a customer sits on it because you licensed the fabric! LOL
Where will it end!
At this point Apple are inhibiting the growth and vitality of our Capitalist Democracies and we need to resolve this issue.
I’m an Apple share holder and all-in on the Apple eco system, and even I can agree that none of this is healthy.
If I took your toasters of the back of a truck, added "Powered by MagicMoonlight" on the side and started getting people to pay me for them, I'd imagine you'd be displeased. You built the toaster and now I'm making all the money from it. I'll tell you that I'm the one covering all the marketing budget and the electricity bill so it's not even affecting you, but is that really the case?
the reality, as you say, is that development and operation of services and APIs isnt free, and you are not entitled to sell your apps to apple’s users. the og iPhone didnt even have an app store; a lot of work went into making a great product and an ecosystem.
developers and apple enjoy a certain relationship, and users love iOS apps, but its not true that developers have the right to do whatever they want (privacy, security, not their platform).
go invent your own OS and phone then
So you mean competition? Isn’t that the whole point of the DMA?
The 78% owner has supported alternative stores and side-loading since forever.
This isn't totally free ride on Apple hardware. You can complain about that if you like, but unless the EU objects, Apple is still going to attempt to protect users who buy Apple products.
I feel so much safer in life.
And it's perfectly just that this security has a price tag.
HAHA! That was their choice to do it that way!