What about things like fees on consoles for third party developers? Or even store brand groceries? I can't see how any third party could ever feel entitled to the infrastructure and associated user base a proprietary platform holds. It's apple's audience, who have all opted in to that ecosystem.
The big difference for fees on gaming consoles (for third party developers) is that they aren't directly competing with the manufacturer. It is not like Activision is publishing "Call of Duty: Green Ops", while Microsoft is publishing a nearly-identical "Call of Duty: Orange Ops". When Microsoft publishes a game on its console, the goal is to generate hardware sales so the Xbox-platform becomes in fact more interesting for third party developers.
When Microsoft publishes a game, it actually is in the interest of third party developers (hardware sales generate bigger audiences for third party devs).
Also, I am not saying Apple isn't allowed to take a small percentage to run the App Store, run the platform, manage payments, etc. - but 30% is exorbitant and not good for competition.
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This argument looks good on paper, I'll give you that. The problem arises when you consider the opposite path. What happens when Apple exists in a market, but then a competitor enters it on Apple's sales platform? Is Apple then immediately required to "level the playing field" for that competitor? Or exit entirely?
First of all, thank you for your reaction. You do, indeed, raise some good questions.
In the current situation (Apple entering the streaming market), I feel like stuff should change. As I mentioned, I feel taking a 30% cut is an exorbitantly high percentage and is not good for competition and might be bad for consumers.
If 30% is too much or is slightly subjective, but in my opinion it is. Apple is a multi-billion dollar company - it makes literally tens of billions of dollars of profit each year. And yet, with its policies, its basically strangling much smaller competitors.
As I said, you raise some interesting questions when it comes to competitors entering Apple's market, like the iTunes Store...
Take the iTunes Store? It was available on iPhone before the first music app even became available on iOS. Apple wasn't locking anyone out. So then a couple years later Pandora and Spotify go app with paid options. How far as Apple expected to accommodate them to not be "anti-competitive"?
I find it very hard to 'define' what Apple should do if competitors enter a market where Apple is already active in. To talk about the iTunes Store...
When the iTunes Store launched on the first iPhone, it was impossible for competitors to sell songs on the iPhone. There weren't even any third party apps! But the other thing is... Apple maybe owned 1% of the phone market in 2007. Even in 2008, when there were third party apps, and 2009... their market share wasn't
that big.
If a company wanted to sell songs on the iPhone and Apple said "we won't allow that", well, at the time that would be fine. They were a relatively small player on the entire phone market. By 2010, iPhone sales only accounted for 4% of the entire market.
Fast forward to 2015: the entire phone market has grown and Apple's sales have exploded and they have an audience of
hundreds of millions customers. If a company steps forward now, and wants to sell songs through an app on the App Store... than I feel like Apple can't be allowed to ask a 30% cut by default. They can ask a more fair and smaller cut to cover costs for the App Store... but 30% is too high. Competitors should be able to price match Apple's offerings.
Apple asking a 30% cut in 2008 is Apple being stubborn, but doesn't harm competition. Apple asking a 30% cut in 2015 is still Apple being stubborn, but now, I believe, it does harm competition and possibly consumers.
As I said, it is very hard to say what Apple should and shouldn't be allowed to do. But my opinion, right now, basically comes down to this: Apple has hundreds of millions of people that use their devices and they make tens of billions of dollars profit each year - that means Apple has a lot of power and influence. And, well, with great power come great responsibilities.