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Most consumers have no idea what profit margins are. They don't know or understand how the one chosen payment method that Apple provides takes a 30% cut, or how

by m12k 5y ago

Most consumers have no idea what profit margins are. They don't know or understand how the one chosen payment method that Apple provides takes a 30% cut, or how that means that any service with less than 30% profit margin cannot be sold to them on the App Store unless the operator sells at a loss. Just because consumers don't understand how something works doesn't mean it can't be bad for them. There are already tons of examples of this in other areas like legal contracts and biology/chemistry, where consumers need experts and regulation to be their advocates, and ensure their rights.

jbverschoor 5y ago
They will still take a 27% cut. People fully understand that any other store takes a cut. The gov takes another 21%. It's arrogant to think that consumers don't understand. They understand once they've been told. Consumers aren't told that ATM transactions cost money. That a creditcard transaction costs the merchant even more money. etc. etc. etc.
- ocdtrekkie 5y ago
  > They will still take a 27% cut. This will probably change. We know governments find this cut abusive, and requiring third party payments was intended in a lot of cases to address this. Google and Apple playing cheeky 27% workarounds will not fly for long. If anything, these companies aggressively refusing to stop fleecing people is going to lead to much more draconian regulations that will turn them into regulated utilities.
enos_feedler 5y ago
The ones that care know. This is true in any category of product or service. You have people that understand how a product's manufacturing might impact the environment and choose to make a different purchase decision. And actually, Apple correctly identified this as something their market cares about and speaks to in their marketing/comms. Do you know what market segment they don't really care about? Hacker news. We are the only ones who discuss this sort of thing and it doesn't really align with what Apple values/cares about anyway. Half the people on here are more probably more aligned with Android's values. This is not surprising.

by m12k 5y ago

jbverschoor 5y ago

They will still take a 27% cut. People fully understand that any other store takes a cut. The gov takes another 21%. It's arrogant to think that consumers don't understand. They understand once they've been told. Consumers aren't told that ATM transactions cost money. That a creditcard transaction costs the merchant even more money. etc. etc. etc.

ocdtrekkie 5y ago
> They will still take a 27% cut. This will probably change. We know governments find this cut abusive, and requiring third party payments was intended in a lot of cases to address this. Google and Apple playing cheeky 27% workarounds will not fly for long. If anything, these companies aggressively refusing to stop fleecing people is going to lead to much more draconian regulations that will turn them into regulated utilities.

enos_feedler 5y ago

The ones that care know. This is true in any category of product or service. You have people that understand how a product's manufacturing might impact the environment and choose to make a different purchase decision. And actually, Apple correctly identified this as something their market cares about and speaks to in their marketing/comms. Do you know what market segment they don't really care about? Hacker news. We are the only ones who discuss this sort of thing and it doesn't really align with what Apple values/cares about anyway. Half the people on here are more probably more aligned with Android's values. This is not surprising.