Further, how much do you think should this be (20%? 10%? 5%?) and if zero, why?
Finally, do you believe Apple should be compensated for the services and marketplace that they are offering, if so, what other strategies do you recommend that they deploy to make everyone happy?
Because it doesn't have to compete with third-party distributors like MacOS? The App Store on MacOS is almost entirely empty, every real developer abandoned it years ago. It's almost impossible to buy professional Mac software on the App Store, because real developers like Avid or Adobe or Affinity don't think Apple's deal is fair either.
> Finally, do you believe Apple should be compensated for the services and marketplace that they are offering
They already are, through their developer fees. If Apple can't compensate themselves without forcing people to use their services, then they need to redesign their business model.
Installing software is not a service, arguably Apple has no right to demand compensation for it in the first place.
Who are the third party distributors for the playstation or xbox?
>They already are, through their developer fees.
It's $100/developer. Considering Microsoft used to charge thousands for Visual Studio, it doesn't seem too unreasonable to claim that $100/year is too low.
>If Apple can't compensate themselves without forcing people to use their services, then they need to redesign their business model.
What's wrong with royalty fee based business models?
>Installing software is not a service, arguably Apple has no right to demand compensation for it in the first place.
Right, which is why Apple characterizes the fee as "core technology fee", ie. for access to its tools and SDKs, not for access to the store.
Plenty. The retail Xbox has supported sideloading for almost a decade now: https://www.howtogeek.com/703443/how-to-put-your-xbox-series...
Nintendo Switch has fully distributed homebrew stores too.
> It's $100/developer.
They can charge more if they don't think they're milking developers enough. They only have, what, a few million of them worldwide.
> What's wrong with royalty fee based business models?
Nothing, if they are forced to compete with other royalty-based services that set a fair baseline price. Otherwise everything is wrong with it. MacOS did this right, although admittedly the App Store didn't quite survive the gauntlet of competition.
Imagine if your favorite band could only make money by signing to a single record label. Do you think their talent would be valued fairly? Do you think they would be respected for who they are, or do you think their likeness would be molested in whichever way was the most profitable for the label?
If that counts as "sideloading", you might as well count the free 7 day signing option that iOS offers (used by alt store) "sideloading".
>Nintendo Switch has fully distributed homebrew stores too.
Officially?
>Nothing, if they are forced to compete with other royalty-based services that set a fair baseline price.
See my previous comments. Apple's claim is that the fee isn't for distribution, it's for access to the SDKs. It's unclear how "if they are forced to compete with other royalty-based services that set a fair baseline price" would work in this case. Epic offers Unreal Engine for free, with the expectation that they'll recoup the money via royalties. That sounds like a lot like Apple's SDKs.
>Imagine if your favorite band could only make money by signing to a single record label.
That's what happens for most bands though? There's typically a exclusivity period, and some artists might stick with a given label their entire lives.
This is a whataboutism. People can discuss Apple's anti-competitive business policies separately from Sony's and Microsoft's. (Does it matter that Playstation and Xbox ecosystems are potentially similarly anti-competitive? That just means the circumstances around their policies should also be scrutinized for the same reasons.)
> it doesn't seem too unreasonable to claim that $100/year is too low
It doesn't seem too unreasonable to tell them tough shit. They can improve their business model themselves; that's their responsibility. It is also their responsibility to avoid anti-competitive business practices.
> What's wrong with royalty fee based business models?
This is a disingenuous question in reply to the pull quote you included from the parent comment. They wrote "without forcing people to use their services". That is the primary anti-competitive thing that people complain about with Apple.
1. https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/external...
The link you provided is only for "Referral fee", not whatever fee charges to fulfill the order (ie. warehousing and shipping), which is separate: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/external...