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We can talk about the morality of Apple’s App Store tax on developers all day but Apple is not a monopoly and they have all the right in the world to tax develo

We can talk about the morality of Apple’s App Store tax on developers all day but Apple is not a monopoly and they have all the right in the world to tax developers. We have to realize that Apple has most of the worlds middle class and rich people using iPhones. Apple can use this this advantage how ever they like as long it’s not breaking any laws. If developers are mad about it then they need to band together like any other industry and lobby for changing the law or create unions. The changing the law part is incredibly difficult thing to do because Apple is not a monopoly. How can you write a law that punishes a business that isn’t a monopoly? Apple is only saying, in order to access out wealthy customers, you need to pay a fee. I don’t see how you can tell Apple that they’re doing some nefarious here.

downWidOutaFite 3y ago
So Android is the best thing that happened to the iPhone but the worst thing that happened to developers and users.
thomastjeffery 3y ago
> not a monopoly So what percentage of humanity do they have to gatekeep before you will be willing to consider them a problem? Apple is anticompetitive, and that's what matters. Arguing that it's technically not a "monopoly" and therefore A-OK is ridiculous.
smoldesu 3y ago
> but Apple is not a monopoly and they have all the right in the world to tax developers. 1. "Apple" is a lot of things, and depending on how you define it (eg. internal app market, API provider, browser developer, etc.) they are absolutely a monopoly. It's not appropriate to say Apple isn't a monopoly because they do have monopoly power, pertinent to multiple markets. 2. Apple is owed nothing if they abuse monopoly power. Bell had "all the right in the world" to charge customers for rewiring their telephone, but it was also foundational in the case to break them up later. All the most famous American monopolies were also in denial up to the bitter end. Microsoft got away lucky, not also getting broken-up.

downWidOutaFite 3y ago

So Android is the best thing that happened to the iPhone but the worst thing that happened to developers and users.

thomastjeffery 3y ago

> not a monopoly So what percentage of humanity do they have to gatekeep before you will be willing to consider them a problem? Apple is anticompetitive, and that's what matters. Arguing that it's technically not a "monopoly" and therefore A-OK is ridiculous.

smoldesu 3y ago

> but Apple is not a monopoly and they have all the right in the world to tax developers. 1. "Apple" is a lot of things, and depending on how you define it (eg. internal app market, API provider, browser developer, etc.) they are absolutely a monopoly. It's not appropriate to say Apple isn't a monopoly because they do have monopoly power, pertinent to multiple markets. 2. Apple is owed nothing if they abuse monopoly power. Bell had "all the right in the world" to charge customers for rewiring their telephone, but it was also foundational in the case to break them up later. All the most famous American monopolies were also in denial up to the bitter end. Microsoft got away lucky, not also getting broken-up.