You actually believe this is going to result in lower prices? 😂 Running your own storefront isn't free. In fact, it is going to be a NEW expense. New expense + business goal to PROFIT does not = lower costs. Especially because the things you need to use to do these things...aren't getting any cheaper either.
Yes, I believe competition will result in lower app prices & related fees for some apps. That's the only way to manage prices for consumers. Where there is zero competition, there is pretty much always high prices... because they can be high... because there are no other choices.
How is it on Mac? Mac App Store may have an app priced at $X. Developer might also sell the app direct for $X or less than $X since they don't have to build in Apple's 15%-30% "right off the top" cut. Developer could also bundle app into those many bundle deals that many of us use to get "10 great apps for [cheap price]". How often do we see those kind of steep app bundle discounts for iDevices?
Running a storefront
does have cost. However, most developers already sell Mac versions of their apps to Mac people. So they already have sunk costs in setting up store fronts. These can just be additional apps now for sale on their established store fronts.
Those who lack storefronts already can either create one themselves or team up with only small developers in a "bundle" of shared costs to offer their apps in new shared retailer app. There are
MANY options here... which is almost always better than only ONE option. Entrepreneurs able to quickly build a good app storefront in the EU should be approaching all of the tiny independents without any direct selling capabilities now... attempting to "manage" the sales of their apps for them for a relative bargain vs. the Apple cut. Since there will likely be many such entrepreneurs, they will be competing with each other to charge the smallest commission to entice as many independent apps as possible. That's classic competition at work (FOR
CONSUMERS).
And of course, anyone with the capabilities to code iOS apps PROBABLY have the capabilities to code their own store front too. So I doubt that that will be some big hinderance to app developers. But for anyone who can code iDevice apps but can't code a storefront, nothing forces them to change ANYTHING- they can just keep selling their app only in the Apple store, exactly as they do now.
Believe it or not... all we have to do is stand by and see how it plays out in the E.U. Several months from now, there will be various recap stories sharing what happened in all of this. I expect some of those to illustrate how some apps cost less than they did in the App Store but developer is making more per transaction when those are purchased direct. Rather than imagine the utter destruction of the EU for whatever rationale we can conjure, this rocket is already fired and roaring. Simply stand by and see for yourself how this plays out.
If any reader is not in the EU, none of this affects you in the least, so you can keep doing everything exactly as you do it and let the EU function as a kind of guinea pig experiment in a localized test market... resulting in the total annihilation, plague & famine, et all... or... much like how being forced to USB-C would be similarly "end of the world", just about nothing terrible will manifest and we'll come to realize it was mostly a bunch of spin to try to protect the lone, "Company Store" and it's very lucrative lock on every single transaction.
