By a small part of that 30% cut, maybe 1% processing fees, a few % on infrastructure and staffing for moderation etc. The rest is profit built on a monopoly which should be regulated.
Perhaps Apple should give the court an accounting of what it costs to run.
The onerous terms forbid (among other things) pricing differently on the app store.
You think 1% is going to pay for the entire development of iOS?
It would be a monopoly if Apple was 80%+ of the phone market; but they're not. If you don't like Apple's business model, there are plenty of other fine phones out there to buy. It's not like Microsoft in the 90's, where they controlled 95% of the desktop market.
> The onerous terms forbid (among other things) pricing differently on the app store.
Didn't know about this; this is onerous, I agree. And I would say forcing price changes for things outside of your dominion should be illegal. (i.e., forcing Fortnite to charge people more who are not buying through the Apple platform is prima facie evidence of an abuse of power.)
No, I think 1% is processing fees, and a few extra percent are required for the infrastructure (storing files for downloads), maybe a few extra percent on top of that for moderation etc. would pay for the app store, not iOS. That still leaves a lot of room in the 30% Apple have given themselves from every transaction as a payment for developers for hosting their apps.
The development of iOS is not funded by the app store, it's funded by iPhone hardware sales, and iOS is necessary for those iPhone sales - that's why they make iOS, not solely as a platform for third party apps.
The app store adds to the value of iOS, and thus the value of iphones, because of all the work put in by third parties. Apple should be thanking these third party developers, not sucking them dry and trying to force competitors in any domain off their store (e.g. the kindle app doesn't allow purchases and can't even link to the Amazon website because Apple wants a 30% cut of every sale).
> The app store adds to the value of iOS, and thus the value of iphones, because of all the work put in by third parties.
But conversely, iOS adds value to every app on the app store -- a lot more value. iOS adds much more value to the Fortnite app than the Fortnite app adds to iOS.
Nobody held a gun to Epic Games' head and forced them to put their app on Apple's app store (or Netflix or Spotify or Kindle). Epic did it because even with the 30% tax, they were going to be making loads more money with their app there than without it. And they are making loads of money with Fortnite. They're just annoyed that Apple is getting so much of it. (And Google too -- they were kicked off Google Play for the same reason.)
Cry me a river. Apple and Google have both created loads of value in developing and maintaining the iOS and Android ecosystems, which Epic wants to take advantage of without paying for. I don't feel bad for them at all.
Perhaps Apple should give the court an accounting of what it costs to run.
The onerous terms forbid (among other things) pricing differently on the app store.