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It’s obviously not rent seeking by anyone’s definition. This is really one of the most absurd claims that gets made about this situation. It is literally the d

It’s obviously not rent seeking by anyone’s definition. This is really one of the most absurd claims that gets made about this situation. It is literally the definition of rent-seeking: "when an entity seeks to gain added wealth without any reciprocal contribution of productivity." Apple isn't making the games, or even the engine. It's just extracting money from the developers that are making the games. Apple is today putting more effort into developing their software platform than anyone in history. True, because Apple won't let anyone else develop their software platform. By that token, Google is putting more effort into developing their software platform than anyone in history, and so is Microsoft, and so is Epic. For comparison: Apple also puts a lot of effort into MacOS, and MS into Windows, but developers can sell games there without Apple taking 30% off the top. If they stopped doing that - how long do you think it would take for Google, or frankly any number of other players, to eat their lunch? This is irrelevant to the question of rent-seeking behavior. They continue to be in the leadership position because they are continuing to innovate as fast as they can. Apple is not the most common smartphone in the world, or even the Western world. It is simply the most profitable...because of the aforementioned rent-seeking. Every part of the platform contributes to its success. Fitness tracking, the watch, the massive investment in APIs, Accessivility, dealing with supply chains, governments geopolitical risks, etc. etc. All of which were first developed by third parties...Apple only began working on those products after third parties proved the market demand existed. I’m delighted to let them take 30% for all this, because I didn’t have to do any of it. Wow. Just wow. Neither did Epic. Epic is the reason people even think of iPhone as a gaming platform today. Not Apple. Epic.

zepto 6y ago
"when an entity seeks to gain added wealth without any reciprocal contribution” You say the things I mentioned are things that other people had already started working on. That may be true, but even so. Unless you are saying that Apple stole their code, you have actually agreed that Apple did contribute these things. Therefore by your definition this is not rent seeking. Epic is not the reason the iPhone is a gaming platform. Claiming this to be the case completely dismisses the work of thousands of other developers who popularized touch based gaming - many of them indies, all using the platform and tools Apple developed. And as I point out elsewhere - Epic had technical help and enormous marketing help with infinity blade from Apple, and they weren’t even the developer. They are just a middleman, not dissimilar to a record label. If anyone is rent-seeking it is Epic, who just want a bigger cut of the action.

zepto 6y ago

"when an entity seeks to gain added wealth without any reciprocal contribution” You say the things I mentioned are things that other people had already started working on. That may be true, but even so. Unless you are saying that Apple stole their code, you have actually agreed that Apple did contribute these things. Therefore by your definition this is not rent seeking. Epic is not the reason the iPhone is a gaming platform. Claiming this to be the case completely dismisses the work of thousands of other developers who popularized touch based gaming - many of them indies, all using the platform and tools Apple developed. And as I point out elsewhere - Epic had technical help and enormous marketing help with infinity blade from Apple, and they weren’t even the developer. They are just a middleman, not dissimilar to a record label. If anyone is rent-seeking it is Epic, who just want a bigger cut of the action.