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Because there is an immense amount of technical and marketing support from Console makers, who provide the core hardware to the masses below-cost (or with very

Because there is an immense amount of technical and marketing support from Console makers, who provide the core hardware to the masses below-cost (or with very low margins). To get onto Consoles in the first place, your product needs to be high enough quality, whereas iOS accepts basically any ol' junk. The economics are so poor on iOS that it is basically impossible to survive (in games for example) without relying on exploitative free-to-play mechanics. This isn't helped by the fact that iOS lacks a comprehensive and easy to use refund feature that encourages people to try apps for a short time, like Steam offers. If Apple reduced their commission to 10%, I think this would be of long-term benefit, since it would give them a a direct point of advantage over Android, and we could expect more premium apps and games to be released that actually take advantage of iOS hardware. Speaking of Steam and Valve, they are the biggest monopolists - selling games for a 30% commission on an open platform - PC! At least Apple still make some great hardware.

scarface74 8y ago
To get onto Consoles in the first place, your product needs to be high enough quality, whereas iOS accepts basically any ol' junk. The economics are so poor on iOS that it is basically impossible to survive (in games for example) without relying on exploitative free-to-play mechanics. So it sounds like you’re arguing that Apple should have stricter controls... I can tell you that AppleTV streaming apps were a lot better and more consistent on the 3rd generation AppleTV where Apple did have stricter controls than on the 4th Gen AppleTV.
- beerlord 8y ago
  Marketplaces like Apple (and Steam) open themselves up to almost any content in a deliberate attempt to assuage concerns about their monopoly position and practices. Which is unfortunate for developers, since it means they must stand out from all the other junk (ie. by using expensive and time-consuming advertising and PR) and then pay 30% commissions to the monopolist platform holder if they are successful. Its the worst of both worlds. I think the solution is simply to uniformly increase the barriers to entry, and the simplest way to do that is monetary. Require $500 for every app or game published, which will quickly increase average quality, but is still a very low barrier for a legitimate creation.

scarface74 8y ago

To get onto Consoles in the first place, your product needs to be high enough quality, whereas iOS accepts basically any ol' junk. The economics are so poor on iOS that it is basically impossible to survive (in games for example) without relying on exploitative free-to-play mechanics. So it sounds like you’re arguing that Apple should have stricter controls... I can tell you that AppleTV streaming apps were a lot better and more consistent on the 3rd generation AppleTV where Apple did have stricter controls than on the 4th Gen AppleTV.

beerlord 8y ago
Marketplaces like Apple (and Steam) open themselves up to almost any content in a deliberate attempt to assuage concerns about their monopoly position and practices. Which is unfortunate for developers, since it means they must stand out from all the other junk (ie. by using expensive and time-consuming advertising and PR) and then pay 30% commissions to the monopolist platform holder if they are successful. Its the worst of both worlds. I think the solution is simply to uniformly increase the barriers to entry, and the simplest way to do that is monetary. Require $500 for every app or game published, which will quickly increase average quality, but is still a very low barrier for a legitimate creation.