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> infrastructure that helped make him a billionaire This is simply not true. First because Fortnite was a desktop first game. But philosophically, I really st

> infrastructure that helped make him a billionaire This is simply not true. First because Fortnite was a desktop first game. But philosophically, I really struggle with the idea that just because something sits on the app store then Apple deserves the credit for any success. It's like saying that Fortnite owes MS windows and Intel for their success. Sure at some level, but not in any real or practical way. Can you imagine if Windows took 30% of all desktop software sales since the dawn of Win 3.1, and what a worse place computing would be in?

Spivak 4y ago
I think we moralize this too much. Apple doesn’t get credit for the app or the infrastructure or whatever. Their role in the transaction is their ownership of valuable digital real-estate that companies salivate over and their business is keeping that real-estate valuable. And boy do they charge a premium for it. Nobody has to hawk their goods on iOS and if there wasn’t money in it nobody would. If Epic didn’t stand to make assloads of money they wouldn’t saber-rattle every few months or fight these legal battles. If anything the fact that everyone complains about their pricing but still publishes on iOS means they have the pricing exactly right.
- lbwtaylor 4y ago
  > Nobody has to hawk their goods on iOS But this ignores their market position on mobile phones and the barriers to creating an open competing mobile phone. It's like if there were two car companies and you could buy tires from them, but if you wanted to buy tires from a third party you had to pay Ford or Chevy 30% tax because you were putting them on their cars. And you want to tell the tire companies too bad, you don't have to sell tires.
Hippocrates 4y ago
It’s really straightforward. Platform owners make investments in supporting development on their platform. Xcode? Metal? Would there even be any apps, developers, or users on iOS if they didn’t make this investment? Tolls and taxes bother me but I don’t pretend to not understand them.
- lbwtaylor 4y ago
  >>Would there even be any apps, developers, or users on iOS if they didn’t make this investment? Pricing power comes from market power. Apple has market power because they were first in the new generation of touchscreen phones. Some app developers have hugely benefited. Some app developers already have an audience and just want their software to be available on all platforms and Apple is using it's market position to extract a toll. I think it's abusive given it's market power. Epic doesn't care about metal or xcode and if there was an open phone that had market position (like Windows PC) Epic would be fine to port it's software to that system. Apple's toll comes from it's market position, not it's investment. The investment created the position -- but For how long does the consumer need to pay Apple's toll for being first 15 years ago? Forever? Apple recouped it's investment many many many times over.
- bsjaux628 4y ago
  And get revenue by forcing developers to pay a yearly license to develop for the platform plus forcing them to buy your overpriced hardware.
theGnuMe 4y ago
I think you have to pay BestBuy for shelf space to sell your games.

Spivak 4y ago

I think we moralize this too much. Apple doesn’t get credit for the app or the infrastructure or whatever. Their role in the transaction is their ownership of valuable digital real-estate that companies salivate over and their business is keeping that real-estate valuable. And boy do they charge a premium for it. Nobody has to hawk their goods on iOS and if there wasn’t money in it nobody would. If Epic didn’t stand to make assloads of money they wouldn’t saber-rattle every few months or fight these legal battles. If anything the fact that everyone complains about their pricing but still publishes on iOS means they have the pricing exactly right.

lbwtaylor 4y ago
> Nobody has to hawk their goods on iOS But this ignores their market position on mobile phones and the barriers to creating an open competing mobile phone. It's like if there were two car companies and you could buy tires from them, but if you wanted to buy tires from a third party you had to pay Ford or Chevy 30% tax because you were putting them on their cars. And you want to tell the tire companies too bad, you don't have to sell tires.

Hippocrates 4y ago

It’s really straightforward. Platform owners make investments in supporting development on their platform. Xcode? Metal? Would there even be any apps, developers, or users on iOS if they didn’t make this investment? Tolls and taxes bother me but I don’t pretend to not understand them.

lbwtaylor 4y ago
>>Would there even be any apps, developers, or users on iOS if they didn’t make this investment? Pricing power comes from market power. Apple has market power because they were first in the new generation of touchscreen phones. Some app developers have hugely benefited. Some app developers already have an audience and just want their software to be available on all platforms and Apple is using it's market position to extract a toll. I think it's abusive given it's market power. Epic doesn't care about metal or xcode and if there was an open phone that had market position (like Windows PC) Epic would be fine to port it's software to that system. Apple's toll comes from it's market position, not it's investment. The investment created the position -- but For how long does the consumer need to pay Apple's toll for being first 15 years ago? Forever? Apple recouped it's investment many many many times over.
bsjaux628 4y ago
And get revenue by forcing developers to pay a yearly license to develop for the platform plus forcing them to buy your overpriced hardware.

theGnuMe 4y ago

I think you have to pay BestBuy for shelf space to sell your games.