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It’s not a tax, it’s like a rent. They built and run the ecosystem, you don’t have to be part of it if you don’t like it, it’s completely voluntary, unlike a ta

It’s not a tax, it’s like a rent. They built and run the ecosystem, you don’t have to be part of it if you don’t like it, it’s completely voluntary, unlike a tax.

jw14 7y ago
Rent is normally flat. I've never heard of a landlord taking a percentage
- sosborn 7y ago
  It happens all the time with commercial leases. https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/clb-percentage-rent.html https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/clb-percentage-rent....
  - amelius 7y ago
    Absurd, and: > The percent that’s applied is usually an industry standard (7% on every dollar) and isn’t subject to much negotiation. Which is still much less than the 30% of Apple.
    - Grustaf 7y ago
      It’s not about the size of the fee, it’s about what you charge for.
- Grustaf 7y ago
  It’s rent in the sense of rent seeking. You control an asset and let others pay for using it, if they want to. Rent seeking is not a very good thing but it’s a minuscule part of Apple’s business model. I also can’t see how a small developer can find it unfair, 30% for access to the best mobile ecosystem seems a pretty good deal to me, and I’m a mobile developer. I can agree that it seems expensive to Amazon or Spotify though.
enos_feedler 7y ago
I don't see it as tax or rent, but a business partnership with a revenue sharing model. Amazon has a unique deal, Google has a unique deal to bring search in Safari, Microsoft has a unique deal. Apple can't sign unique deals with all developers so this is a fair and scalable way to create business deals using APIs. It isn't perfect, but it works. If it didn't, it wouldn't be so successful.