>So they do all that (and iPhone sales alone cover basically everything Apple does), and they are "entitled" to charging for a business transaction that happens

>So they do all that (and iPhone sales alone cover basically everything Apple does), and they are "entitled" to charging for a business transaction that happens between users and non-Apple businesses? Yes, absolutely they are entitled to that. What they shouldn't be entitled to do (and we should pass laws to enforce) is not offer owners a choice as to whether to have Apple be the exclusive software/hardware source or not. By law, at purchase time anyone should be able to choose to have access to their device's software certificate root of trust, hardware rot, or both. Apple should have to compete on the merits of the App Store, on their service, curation, etc. And fwiw I think that for a large number (maybe even the majority) of regular people they'd perfectly well be able to do so. There's significant value there, particularly if the threat of straightforward alternatives kept Apple's incentives better aligned. But within their own store, in a world with the choice to opt out, sure I don't see why there would be any problem with them charging for their role anymore then for any other store of any kind ever. The core issue is the required technical lock in.