Something you'll notice during every WWDC is that Apple will repeatedly say that iOS updates are "always free." I always found that odd till I realized it both

Something you'll notice during every WWDC is that Apple will repeatedly say that iOS updates are "always free." I always found that odd till I realized it both a throwback to the days when upgrades weren't free - but also as a nod to "We don't get paid by charging for our operating system." Once you're entering the Apple ecosystem - Apple is making itself the de-facto middleman between the user and everyone else. I think that's what this comes down to - you're paying Apple the premium as a developer to access Apple's customers. They aren't your customers. They are Apples. So this argument calls this out but is asking them to change that? Seems like they are asking Apple to completely change their business model. Edit to add from the TC interview with Schiller, he even gives a way to get around the app store process, which I have used in a previous app that we did on iOS: "One way that Hey could have gone, Schiller says, is to offer a free or paid version of the app with basic email reading features on the App Store, then separately offered an upgraded email service that worked with the Hey app on iOS on its own website"