That would be my preference. Regulating a service fee like this can get messy. There are plenty of models where intermediaries take a cut of something and actually provide roughly equivalent value for it that you'd have to write a "This only applies to Apple and Android" app store law. Even then, 30% for a small low profile developer just starting out isn't entirely unreasonable when no one would easily find them or know who they are without App Store exposure, even with the noise in there. (I think devs like this get a slight discount already though)
Of course household names like Uber are different, but it would also be difficult for Apple to have a policy like "The top 100 most recognizeable brand only pay 10% because we're not providing exposure value to them since people already know who they are."
I think a regulation that requires the ability for competing app stores that can be installed without Apple or Android putting scary security warnings in user's eyeballs before installing them would be a cleaner move.
Admittedly, even then I'm not sure where to draw the line-- should Xbox also then be required to allow competing game stores? Samsung smart watches? Fitbits? I don't have an easy answer to that.
Especially when both have done everything in their power to make the lives of "competing platforms" as difficult as possible. It's hardly a winning VC pitch.
Strong language is coming, skip my post if you're delicate.
They're cowards. Plain and simple. They want a "safe" investment with a pre-defined path to an IPO in 2-10 years so they can cash out. Makes me fuckin' sick. We could have a third alternative to iOS and Android, but it won't be easy, it won't be fast, and it won't be cheap. These VC vultures don't have the goddamned balls to put significant amounts of money on the line with the prospect of absolutely no return ever, and that's why it'll take a miracle straight from Heaven for us to get a third option - because these people have no real grand vision and no damned backbone.
No one on Planet Earth is going to convince me that the best the human species can do is Android and iOS.
Forget the VC, even Microsoft, with a market cap close to Apple’s, and the net income to support it, are too cowardly to invest a few billion and 10 years into developing quality device.
The App Store was ruled not to be a separate product from iOS in Epic v Apple, so the iPhone really is the full package including iOS and App Store, and you must compete against it fully.
