Developers of mobile native apps can choose from a bunch of platforms and app marketplaces. If they choose to develop for iOS, they pay $99 a year, and they can

Developers of mobile native apps can choose from a bunch of platforms and app marketplaces. If they choose to develop for iOS, they pay $99 a year, and they can offer their apps for free in the App Store, even if it's ad supported. If they offer paid apps, Apple will take 30% of the gross. The developer doesn't have to pay for bandwidth or credit card processing. Even some of the customer service and marketing will be done by Apple. Compare that to the way how artists who sign with a major label are treated. It's clear who is getting the better deal. What these two groups have in common is that their work is vetted, and the catalogs they wish for their work to end up in are curated. The chances of a musician being picked up by a record label are way, way, way slimmer than the chances for a developer to be accepted into Apple's developer program and having the privilege to publish their apps in the App Store. Does Apple publish all apps that are submitted for consideration? No, and I'm glad that it doesn't -- there are plenty of lousy programmers out there. As a consumer browsing through the App Store, I regularly find lousy apps that aren't even worth downloading for free. If anything, I think Apple should be more diligent.