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Comment by Hnrobert42 | Hacker News Reader

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Hnrobert42·

Apple doesn't charge 30% for physical good sold through apps on ios.

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That's an interesting idea.

What if, instead of 'subscribing' for $10, you purchase a grain of sand for $10.

The grain of sand is available for collection from somewhere, doesn't matter where because nobody would bother to collect it. Your physical purchase comes with free access to digital content.

This wouldn't work, unless you actually have some legitimate way to obtain the grain of sand.

So Patreon would have to actually staff a location somewhere that distributes the sand.

So sell air which is only available for self-service pickup.

> The grain of sand is available for collection from somewhere

> staff a location

still costs less than 30% of all ios revenue

Or just say you shipped it. Neither party would have incentive to say 'they never shipped it/it never came'. Mail a postcard if Apple wants tracking.

Its funny, because this is the exact opposite of how some cannabis dispensaries operate in Washington DC. It is illegal to sell cannabis there, but not to posses or to gift it. So you buy a $50 QR code that lets you access "digital art", and they give you a free 1/8 of cannabis with your purchase as a "gift".

This is the old eBay shipping trick. Ebay charged vendors a percentage of the product sale price, but nothing on shipping. So I'd often buy posters for $0.99 with $14.99 shipping (US Media Mail shipping was a lot lower than that).

The point is that since they keep broadening what they do want 30% of, we expect the next thing they'll do is removing the exception for physical goods.

It's always been 30% for virtual goods; definition hasn't broadened.

Yet.

You use your bank's app? Guess what, Apple gets 30% of your account balance. Look at your 401k balance? Believe it or not, Apple owns 30% of that.

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