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Evidence of Apple's monopoly are actually baked right into that rate. They are price-setters, not subject to the whims of the market, and adjust their prices gi
by jariel 6y ago
Evidence of Apple's monopoly are actually baked right into that rate. They are price-setters, not subject to the whims of the market, and adjust their prices given non-market forces (press, threat of regulation etc.)
It's a high enough number that it absolutely changes outcomes, meaning at minimum less choice for consumers and higher cost, and implicitly, a whole host of lost opportunity.
In particular, there are tons of Enterprise apps that can't feasibly operate on Apple due to issues concerning Apple wanting to take the entirety of their profit.
As a small operation, in the corner of the economy, it doesn't matter, but this is unfolding like the Edison/Tesla/Westinghouse battles of the last century and we know how that ended up.
- zepto 6y ago> In particular, there are tons of Enterprise apps that can't feasibly operate on Apple due to issues concerning Apple wanting to take the entirety of their profit. False. Apple doesn’t take a percentage from enterprise distribution. Also, you didn’t provide a counterfactual, which is exactly my point. The 15% on its own is indicative of nothing.
- jariel 6y ago??? Apple absolutely takes 30% of Enterprise services, depending on how they are paid for, and as they gain more power, they will absolutely lever that power into other sectors. "Apple is demanding 30% commission from Airbnb and ClassPass. That's because the pair have shifted to selling virtual, online classes during the pandemic. It has threatened to remove Airbnb from the App Store if it doesn't comply." [1] How risky is it now to create a startup, used by anyone in a situation of 'individual buyers' that involves any kind of service? Apple is threatening to take 30% of most of the US services economy. If it 'happens on an iPhone' - they want 30%. For small companies, it's 15% - but the difference is irrelevant because they are 'price setters' in a monopoly setting, and those prices cause consumer harm. You cannot currently upgrade Spotify or Netflix using an iPhone - that is a fairly radically obvious example of Apple stupidity/consumer harm. And finally the 15%/30% charge are material because they drive that consumer harm - were there no such charge, you'd be able to a range of other services. " you didn’t provide a counterfactual, which is exactly my point." - yes, I did. A 30/15% tax causes material harm. The 15% is evidence of price setting. You can download apps for 0% all over the Android universe. [1] https://www.imore.com/apple-threatens-remove-airbnb-app-store-over-virtual-experiences-commission https://www.imore.com/apple-threatens-remove-airbnb-app-stor...
- zepto 6y ago> Apple absolutely takes 15/30% of Enterprise services, depending on how they are paid for. This is complete bullshit. They charge 15/30% for delivery of digital content through their actual platform. Paying for services is done through Apple Pay, which has fees in line with any other credit card processor. Yes, it’s true that there are some fucked up cases where Apple is classing certain digital content in a way that seems to violate this. Yes, we should be pressuring them to be sane about that. But let’s not spread bullshit like ‘Apple charges 30% for “Enterprise Services”’ in some general way. That’s just misleading, and false.