Steve Jobs introduces the App store - iPhone SDK Keynote

I remember when it was a news headline that Apple showed ads _at all_ in App Store. It's sad that they're straying even further into scummy ways to nickel-and-dime every ounce of profit they can get out of everyone using their products and services. (Check out nice and simple it was in 2008: ▶ this video )

No. But I don't take a 30% cut as an indication of cartel-building when it has existed since Jobs first announced the App store in 2008 [1] and was done at a time where the Walmarts and Best Buys of the world charged 70% if not more. Quite recently Apple sought fit to reduce it's revenue share to 15% after the first year on the store store. Google has done the same. I wouldn't call putting more money in the pockets of developers a lack of competition. [1] ▶ this video

Yup, I'd certainly agree that the App Store has various consumer utilities, and even in centralizing payment it has value as a consumer; I don't really want to give out my credit card to every app and I certainly want a central place to cancel subscriptions with no bullshit. That said, I do think that 30% is excessive. Job's original announcement [1] suggested that the App Store's 30% was the cost of running the App Store; I don't believe that it is really costing that much to run now. Reducing the payment premium and/or allowing customer choice of paying the App Store rate, or the outside the store rate is maybe the least bad option here. It's telling that there has been no substantive movement on margin from Apple or Google here. Steam is also 30% until you reach higher tiers, then it's 25%. Epic is only 12%. I think a lot of the current concerns would be allayed if the cut was only 12%. [1] ▶ this video

It's worth going back to the App Store reveal video. ▶ this video 30% might be high, and there's certainly a case to be made for conflict of interest in the Netflix/Spotify arena, but the App Store is solving a lot of problems: it's a single, universal way to get an app out to every iThing, it manages updates, and there's no nickel-and-diming in terms of processing fees or hosting or anything like that. I thought it was in that keynote but maybe not: I remember someone comparing a 30% cut to the costs associated with getting a physical copy onto retail shelf, and if I recall correctly it was in the same universe.