No, it isn't really. Walmart gets a cut off of selling you a PS5 game, up front, one time, & only if you choose to buy it from Walmart. Any future DLC related purchase, Walmart gets nothing.
What Apple is doing would be like Walmart being the sole source of every PS5 game and getting a 30% cut of all of that as well well as any / all DLC purchases for the games.
Yes but in your example what companies want to do is sell the PS5 in Wal-mart without paying a fee to do so. They want to use Wal-mart for free and benefit from the customers shopping at Wal-mart.
In this case apps that are free and only make money from IAP are doing basically that. Its a back door way to use the App Store and Apple for free. They benefit from the iOS user base and pay Apple nothing for all they effort to create that iOS user base and market. By not charging for IAP or subscriptions specifically that is essentially what will happen. Everyone and their brother will do IAP and Apple will never earn a single penny.
Wal-mart is selling physical goods for a one time fee and not sticking products on their shelves that people can walk into the store grab and walk out without paying. Wal-mart is getting compensated for every transaction.
Apple has a different business model. Should Apple just ban all forms of IAP? Thats not exactly fair to those that use it as a legit means to sell their hard work. Yes apple could do an alternative and charge $100,000 for an endless license to sell subscriptions with no fees. The reality is however this would only make sense for a handful of companies the size of Epic. No small developer is going to pay that and hope their app sells millions to justify that cost. Even some larger developers may be hesitant to go that route.
It would also increase the cost for all the other developers. Apple was able to cut the app fees for anything under $1,000,000 down to 15% because they make most of their money from the larger developers. This is more like a tax system where some societies tax big companies to help offset the taxes for the rest of the citizens. If the taxes suddenly drop for the larger companies then the taxes will go up for smaller developers.
Apple was also trying to make it easier for small indie developers to find success. In the Wal-mart example it is almost impossible for most of us to create a game, box it up and get Wal-mart to sell it on their shelves. It would cost us a small fortune to do it and we would not be able to. Apple didn't want that and they wanted a system that would help the smaller developers. The system is fair across the board. An app sells $10.00 it pays 30%. An app sells $1,000,00 it pays 30%. Much like a tax system. We all get charged 30%. That makes it very easy for a developer who may only make $10.00 to still keep developing apps and keep their app out there to pick up another $10.00 in sales after word of mouth spreads.
If Apple charged a flat fee like Wal-mart does to sell an app on the App Store it would likely mean 90% of app developers would not do it. It would return the game development industry back to the hands of a few larger companies where they controlled all the power. This is why most online stores like Steam and Nintendo also charge 30%. It is that single fair move that made the indie game and app industry actually work today and stand a chance competing against the large gaming companies.
There is also the argument that if there was no iOS platform companies like Epic wouldn't be making their 70% anyway. It is because of iOS that companies like Spotify even exist today. If there were no mobile apps there would be no Spotify. Period. So iOS and Apple are responsible for that entire companies existence. In the case of Epic they are now earring that much more money than they did before they had a iOS version. Its an existing game that was ported to iOS. Every penny they pull in now is gravy on top of their usual game revenue for computer users. 30% seems like a lot but 70% extra profit is even more.
I am an app developer and if I made a game and it sold $2,000,000 I am very happy to pay Apple 30% because I know without mobile, iOS the App Store and Apple there would be no way I would have ever done anywhere close to a $2,000,000 game. Just like I earn more money than my dad and I'm happy to pay more in taxes than he does. Its fair that I pay more taxes because I earn more.