Volume discounts come about because the true cost of a product has both fixed and variable components. If it costs a given amount to have a checkout clerk ring

Volume discounts come about because the true cost of a product has both fixed and variable components. If it costs a given amount to have a checkout clerk ring up your order, that amount doesn't change based on whether you buy a case of ramen or a single cup, so if you buy the case they can spread it over a larger volume. But in this context, the fixed and variable costs are already split out. iOS developers pay the $99 fixed charge that should cover any of Apple's fixed costs and pay 30%. If you're already paying the fixed costs explicitly then the unit price only needs to cover the variable costs and higher volume yields no change. And they're starting off from a PR hole because the rate so obviously has no relationship to their actual costs. It costs them the same to distribute a 100MB app whether the developer charges $1 or $100, but they charge $0.30 in one case and $30 in the other. A developer with a 10MB app sold for $10 pays ten times more than a developer with a 100MB app sold for $1 even though their distribution cost to Apple is ten times less. Ordinary competitive markets don't work like that because otherwise a competitor would come in charging prices more proportional to their costs and everyone being overcharged would switch to the alternative.