So I'm of two minds here. On one mind the app stores do provide a mechanism for security, that is of great value to end users. On the other hand, the amount t

So I'm of two minds here. On one mind the app stores do provide a mechanism for security, that is of great value to end users. On the other hand, the amount they collect is way too large. I'm wondering if there is a middle path. If one wants to use the app store to make your apps discoverable, you pay the higher fee, but if you just use the app store for distribution (and hence don't disrupt the end user security model) you can pay a smaller fee. so how would users install apps without being able to discover it on the store? via the desktop (and not mobile, if we want to be strict) web. i.e. epic can give users a url that they can use to connect to google' web market (which already allow you to install apps to your device, and apple can do the same). This would be the only way to install these apps (though updates would proceed as normal). if one searches for the app in the marketplace, it wont come up. And as I said, perhaps even on mobile the direct link to app wont work (though of multiple minds on this as well). For app developers that need the app store to drive interest and demand, the 30% cut google/apple take is then reasonable. For app developers that can drive their own demand, they would pay a much smaller cut (perhaps 5-10%, with a decent chunk of that being the normal credit card processing fees that they would have anyways). just a thought