If Apple competes in a reasonable and aggressive way, you’re not gonna have to worry about this
That’s what all of this is about.
Actually getting Apple to compete on terms and not just have lock in of a captive, trapped, audience.
None of this would even be at this point if Apple had been charging something much more reasonable all this time or had at least pivoted to it sometime in the last decade.
Since we are on this topic, I am interested to hear more about what you feel improved competition might translate to for the end user.
It feels like we are conflating two distinct groups of people. The people complaining about Apple’s App Store practices are usually developers who resent the cut they have to pay Apple. This doesn’t that customers have a problem with how Apple runs the App Store. That’s why we didn’t really see an outpouring of support for Epic when Fortnite was booted from the App Store.
For one, I believe that users by and large don’t really dislike a walled garden approach. There is value in having at least a basic layer of vetting to ensure that bad actors are kept out. That problematic apps still make it into the App Store is no reason to do away with the practice altogether (just like nobody would argue that the presence of crime means that we should disband the police force). People still prefer having their apps all in once place where they can purchase with a trusted payment method. This also allows them to update all their apps with ease, manage their subscriptions, and readily re-install all their apps whenever they switch to a new device.
I remember when I upgraded to an M1 MBA, and had to remember what apps I had installed, and download them all again from their respective websites (since quite a number were not found in the Mac App Store). I probably had to repurchase 1 or 2 apps all over again because I lost the product key (a problem you don’t have to deal with on iOS). I could buy a new iPhone or ipad tomorrow, set it up as a new device and all my 100+ mobile apps downloading within the hour.
I am personally not a fan of dealing with multiple installers on PCs, and I don’t relish the prospect of having to get my apps from multiple different app stores if such a hypothetical future were to ever come to pass. Epic tried a stunt on Android many years ago. I don’t think anyone can, in clear conscience, say that it benefited anyone save the company itself.
Second, consumers don’t really care about a 30% they can’t see. IAPs have zero marginal cost, because the design and coding is already done and the assets have already been baked into the game. I doubt that app prices will come down in response to Apple lowering their cut. Yes, I suppose you could say that app developers are people too and you would rather see more money go to them instead of Apple. I can also argue that Apple, having aggregated the best customers in the world, has helped in growing the overall pie, and 30% is not unreasonable for its role in facilitating a greater volume of purchases. As such, I am at best indifferent to this as a consumer.
Third, it sometimes feels like developers have differing priorities from consumers (meaning we are not always on the same side), and I would rather Apple side with the consumer over the developer. Is anyone actually salivating at the prospect of say, a Facebook or Google App Store where their apps can sport even more invasive tracking outside of the purview of Apple? Spotify doesn’t stop complaining about how they feel Apple doesn’t deserve their 15% cut of subscription revenue, and they have also been slow to support new iOS features like airplay or release an app for the Apple TV. Given the predatory nature of freemium games, Apple could charge them 50% tomorrow and I wouldn’t shed a tear.
Fourth, an App Store like Epic can often afford to charge less because they are also doing less for the money. The Epic Games Store is abysmal and won’t be winning any design awards anytime soon. Maybe 30% is indeed to high (you don’t hear developers complaining about it on other platforms like the Switch and PS5), but Apple does and should deserve something, and I don’t believe that a race to the bottom in order to court developers benefits anybody.
I feel it’s telling that in this “war” between Apple and developers, nobody has asked consumers what they felt about the matter.
