One might argue they already capture the value in the phone's price. Their hardware might be good, but if they switched to android overnight, iPhone sales would

One might argue they already capture the value in the phone's price. Their hardware might be good, but if they switched to android overnight, iPhone sales would plummet. It's clear many companies think the 30% cut is too high, but giving up on Apple means giving up on 45% of the highly-lucrative US market. This means Apple is able to use its dominant position to squeeze the margin of other companies via the too-high 30% fee. A clear monopolistic practice. As for the value-add (since rent-seeking is about charging without value-add) — it's smaller than you think. Contrast with Android, where you can at least install the app without going through the official App store. Apple's is simply charging for gatekeeping the access to its market (Google would like to do this too but historically hasn't bee in a position to do it as effectively).