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This wouldn't happen if Apple decided to cut their Apple tax to 15% or something. They already knew that this 30% is not sustainable. 15% would be still conside

This wouldn't happen if Apple decided to cut their Apple tax to 15% or something. They already knew that this 30% is not sustainable. 15% would be still considerably higher than usual payment processors' but something justifiable given their massive investment into the platform. But instead of taking this path, Apple decided to exploit this 30% tax for competition against other service providers. This is obviously unfair advantage, so sooner or later this kind of regulation was expected to come. I'm still not sure if Apple really believed that they could stop this kind of regulation, but they built their entire business structure based on a brittle assumption that they could retain full control on their ecosystem regardless of political landscape. Now they're going to pay the price of making a wrong bet.

alimov 4y ago
> but they built their entire business structure based on a brittle assumption that they could retain full control on their ecosystem regardless of political landscape. Now they're going to pay the price of making a wrong bet. Do you really believe that you see or understand something that decision makers at Apple hadn’t considered?
- summerlight 4y ago
  Why do you think Apple's decision makers would make the same decision to mine based on the same information? I'm pretty sure that Tim clearly understood the trade-off and his leverage was on a more predictable path via more market controls. You gotta understand different people make different decisions even with the same input.
strulovich 4y ago
It’s very likely this would have happened even if Apple would have cut it to 15%. There’s still about 12% on the table, and the rest of the gate keeping issues would still be there. History is full of precedents where a powerful party gave some of its power only to have it not stop and even accelerate the attacks against it. Apple could not stay the biggest company in the world without attracting attention such as this. One of those has to give.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 4y ago
  15% is low enough that the increased convenience and number of users who are payment-ready is worth it. And that's as it should be. Apple should compete based on what they actually provide (a user friendly platform with a network effect), which is profitable enough, not from artificially gatekeeping their users.
xutopia 4y ago
Apple probably gambled on keeping it at 30% everywhere other than Europe would still be worthwhile.
ginko 4y ago
>This wouldn't happen if Apple decided to cut their Apple tax to 15% or something. Still wouldn't allow people to install Firefox.
sircastor 4y ago
>This wouldn't happen if Apple decided to cut their Apple tax to 15% or something. They did [0]. 18 months ago they reduced the App Store commission to 15% for developers doing less than $1m in revenue. Clearly that didn't make a difference. [0] https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/18/21572302/apple-app-store-small-business-program-commission-cut-15-percent-reduction https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/18/21572302/apple-app-store...

alimov 4y ago

> but they built their entire business structure based on a brittle assumption that they could retain full control on their ecosystem regardless of political landscape. Now they're going to pay the price of making a wrong bet. Do you really believe that you see or understand something that decision makers at Apple hadn’t considered?

summerlight 4y ago
Why do you think Apple's decision makers would make the same decision to mine based on the same information? I'm pretty sure that Tim clearly understood the trade-off and his leverage was on a more predictable path via more market controls. You gotta understand different people make different decisions even with the same input.

strulovich 4y ago

It’s very likely this would have happened even if Apple would have cut it to 15%. There’s still about 12% on the table, and the rest of the gate keeping issues would still be there. History is full of precedents where a powerful party gave some of its power only to have it not stop and even accelerate the attacks against it. Apple could not stay the biggest company in the world without attracting attention such as this. One of those has to give.

tgsovlerkhgsel 4y ago
15% is low enough that the increased convenience and number of users who are payment-ready is worth it. And that's as it should be. Apple should compete based on what they actually provide (a user friendly platform with a network effect), which is profitable enough, not from artificially gatekeeping their users.

xutopia 4y ago

Apple probably gambled on keeping it at 30% everywhere other than Europe would still be worthwhile.

ginko 4y ago

>This wouldn't happen if Apple decided to cut their Apple tax to 15% or something. Still wouldn't allow people to install Firefox.

sircastor 4y ago

>This wouldn't happen if Apple decided to cut their Apple tax to 15% or something. They did [0]. 18 months ago they reduced the App Store commission to 15% for developers doing less than $1m in revenue. Clearly that didn't make a difference. [0] https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/18/21572302/apple-app-store-small-business-program-commission-cut-15-percent-reduction https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/18/21572302/apple-app-store...