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If the max fine is €50 million it may just be cheaper to pay the fines. Problem for Apple is that you can bet regulators around the world are watching this. And I doubt they like what they’re seeing.
I doubt apple is willingly going to let go of billions of dollars of revenue. That they are Paying the fine says that…it may be cheaper to close the App Store in the long run.
 
This is because the majority of the 30% was never about payment processing. Apple provides SDKs, tools, developer support (including tons of documentation, and much of WWDC content is free online as well), distribution infrastructure, etc. I've seen estimates that Apple breaks even anywhere between 10%-20% commission. In any case, they should also be allowed to make a profit on their platform as well.

Some of you guys really need to look into what other digital distribution platforms charge (the majority are at or around 30%) and even look at what traditional retail charges for shelf space.

So let them flipping charge for it directly.... charge an app developer for tools, for downloads, etc

Instead of making rules that some apps don't pay a single cent towards it, and others get nailed for what really appears to be "popular category walled garden tax" when Apple doesn't build anything that is being bought digitally

Because in the end, based on Apple's financials, we know this is almost pure profit. The amount Apple spends to keep the App Store going is piddly, and those tools, and those 3rd party apps, are what keeps Apple's actual products selling... which should be the priority. If you stop selling hardware, you lose everything else.
 
So let them flipping charge for it directly.... charge an app developer for tools, for downloads, etc

Instead of making rules that some apps don't pay a single cent towards it, and others get nailed for what really appears to be "popular category walled garden tax" when Apple doesn't build anything that is being bought digitally

Because in the end, based on Apple's financials, we know this is almost pure profit. The amount Apple spends to keep the App Store going is piddly, and those tools, and those 3rd party apps, are what keeps Apple's actual products selling... which should be the priority. If you stop selling hardware, you lose everything else.
This is a very fair system. Let’s dynamite it so a few big developers can live of the fat of apples land and indie developers are out out of business. That is where this is headed.
 
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I’m not sure we should even be paying for iPhones..

They are beginning to exist solely as a way for Apple to hawk their recurring revenue products

Phone should eventually be nearly free if that is the “future” here.
What I wish is that Apple loses nearly all their services money and has to actually focus on hardware. Want growth? Come up with a better product, don’t upsell me on crappy subscriptions I don’t want. Novel idea.
 
I’m not sure we should even be paying for iPhones..

They are beginning to exist solely as a way for Apple to hawk their recurring revenue products

Phone should eventually be nearly free if that is the “future” here.
I agree.... they keep jacking the price of our phones up, yet, its becoming more and more apparent they aren't really our phones.
 
The thing is...people aren't going to realize what a cluster**** they created by demanding these options. Until it bites them. But it'll be too late. They won't be happy until they ruin something that's actually good. And then they STILL won't be happy because it'll be a total mess.

The saying "be careful what you wish for...because you just might get it" comes to mind. You'll get what you want! But it'll also come with a lot of things you DIDN'T want.
Okay Timmy boy
 
What I wish is that Apple loses nearly all their services money and has to actually focus on hardware. Want growth? Come up with a better product, don’t upsell me on crappy subscriptions I don’t want. Novel idea.
A focus on services, and more specifically, financial services....is what destroyed GE
I can see Apple's downfall as being the same in the end.

Its the only way to please wallstreet, you can only eventually squeeze so much growth out of manufacturing a product.
But in the end, the financial services aren't really a unique product and there is no reason for someone to pick you over anyone else.
 
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What I wish is that Apple loses nearly all their services money and has to actually focus on hardware. Want growth? Come up with a better product, don’t upsell me on crappy subscriptions I don’t want. Novel idea.

Me too

But I expect the complete opposite.

I really do think there will be an iPhone subscription at some point.
But… I expect them to triple dip

They will want an expensive upfront purchase, a required recurring revenue subscription AND they will want to maintain a full monopoly on iOS App sourcing (so they can squeeze the developers still)

People defending Apple at this point are signing up to be their slaves.
There will be no amount of money that is ever “enough” for Apple

They need to get knocked down sooner rather than later.
The hubris is at level 12 in Cupertino these days
 
THIS!

Alt-payments sound good but the second you need a refund or customer service..... good luck. Also good luck when the cheapo 3rd party payment processor they choose in order to save a buck gets hacked.
If you have ever use a dating site before the App Store you know this will be a disaster. If you are savvy enough to figure out how to cancel a subscription, they will continue to charge you anyway for months and good luck getting a refund. You would have to go through your credit card company to dispute it.

Let’s not even talk about giving you credit card or banking information to random app developers who could just as easily be that Nigerian prince that emails you for your help.
 
The 27% commission on external payment options is the most nakedly ruthless thing I've seen Apple do in a very long time. It's so petty and gross, it can only have come from the combined minds of Phil Schiller and Eddy Cue.

I can't wait to read the internal emails discussing this option which will inevitably come out through pre-trial discovery over the next decade.
Typical credit card processing fees are around 3%. It's not "ruthless", it's basic business.

These dating apps want to leverage Apple's APIs and hard work for their own gain and not pay for it.
 
I have.

Epic Games and Microsoft both only collect 12% from the sale of a game. That's far far lower than 30% or even the 27% commission Apple thinks it deserves for allowing someone else to handle the payment.
There are far more than two other digital storefronts. Also lol @ "what Apple thinks it deserves." It's more like what Apple thinks it can charge for the services they provide. I didn't realize Epic also provides a wealth of developer resources for anything and everything sold on their storefront (hint: they don't). Epic also apparently loses money on their store. Anyway, that alone doesn't justify the entire 30%, but it might justify something higher than 12%.

As for traditional retail such as a brick-and-mortar grocery store, it works differently; They use slotting fees. These are one time fees as opposed to Apple's percentage cut and varies depending on what is negotiated based on the amount of shelf space, location on the shelf (premium eye-level real estate or bottom shelf), the number of grocery stores the product will appear in, if it's regional or national stores, etc.

But you can't really compare digital space to physical space since there's no space limitation when it comes to displaying a digital product unlike with a physical one.
Emphasis mine. This sounds dangerously close to the old "ebooks should be priced [ridiculously low] because they're just a bunch of zeroes and ones" type of argument people made early in the iBooks vs Kindle days; ultimately, a product is a product and corporations are not charities. As always, the onus is on consumers to vote with their wallets if they don't like something about what's being offered to them.
 
Apple’s pathetic attempts to avoid the law using dodgy tactics will be stopped. It should just give up and stop forcing developers to use the apple store and its payment systems. If it doesn’t stop it its own accord it will be stopped by force: netherland is only one of the first states to do so, and only on a single category of apps, but soon enough it will be the whole EU to demand the same thing, and the fines will be much higher, as the potentially lost revenue in case that market would be precluded to apple.
 
So let them flipping charge for it directly.... charge an app developer for tools, for downloads, etc

Instead of making rules that some apps don't pay a single cent towards it, and others get nailed for what really appears to be "popular category walled garden tax" when Apple doesn't build anything that is being bought digitally
Can't wait for the exodus of free apps due to this and the peanut gallery's response to that, since many people won't pay for apps either.

Because in the end, based on Apple's financials, we know this is almost pure profit. The amount Apple spends to keep the App Store going is piddly, and those tools, and those 3rd party apps, are what keeps Apple's actual products selling... which should be the priority. If you stop selling hardware, you lose everything else.
No, we don't know that it's pure profit. As far back as 2010, it was costing Apple upwards of $2bn/yr to run the App Store (this was quoted in the thread about this same topic last week, in fact). Nobody knows for sure what it costs today, but people can make some informal projections based on Apple's growth since then.
 
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A focus on services, and more specifically, financial services....is what destroyed GE
I can see Apple's downfall as being the same in the end.

Its the only way to please wallstreet, you can only eventually squeeze so much growth out of manufacturing a product.
But in the end, the financial services aren't really a unique product and there is no reason for someone to pick you over anyone else.
I believe for apple it’s having both integrated. Their software services used to be integrated into the hardware purchases, but breaking them out has allowed for enormous growth and reinvestment.

I really believe these issues will be resolved in the next few years as the Arcade and Apple One platforms become the dominant way Apple does Apps. One subscription for unlimited access to all the apps and functions, with apple buying, licensing, or doing a joint venture with developers to create the Apps and pay them accordingly based on usage and engagement.

Like Arcade Apple regains control of their platform and it’s no longer a marketplace.

The App Store could be left in its current form, but all of the real investment would go into a platform the can get an acceptable return on investment. For them that is 30-40% on average. Any business or person for that matter has the right to decide for themselves what their services are worth. In a free market with tons of options people can vote with their money. In this case people are choosing Apple because they prefer how they choose to do business. Competitor chose and continue to choose a different way and Apple grows bigger and bigger.

In the end all of these attacks are an assault on Apple’s customers, because it threatens the ecosystem we chose on purpose. If we wanted something else I had the option to buy that but chose Apple for a better and safer experience.
 
Apple should allow third party payments without fees but in that case they should ask for a specific iTunes/AppDeveloper subscription to be able to benefit from the AppStore security regarding app distribution. Put that price very high - several thousands of dollars a year, not the < $100 they are actually asking for + highly limit the number of releases a year they can do, and you won’t see any third party payment appear (at the contract level they can do what they want as this is a service they provide to a third party business; anti competitive ruling won’t apply).
 
So will Tim Cook will pay the max fine of $50M from his M1 Max laptop, and then continue breaking the law in perpetutity?
 
Tim will probably lead them right up to the precipice and then retire

Sail away and enjoy the spoils...
"Peace out! -- enjoy the regulatory mess!"

:p


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they should ask for a specific subscription to be able to benefit from the AppStore security regarding app distribution.

What security?
You mean App Review, which most developers hate?

The real security comes from the design of the OS to begin with and has almost nothing to do with App Review.

App Review is mainly worried about enforcing Apple developer policies -- a huge chunk of those are about maintaining Apple's revenue lockdowns, not "security"
 
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