> I’m arguing for the tax because it provides a strong incentive for app developers to stick to Apples payment systems, that’s good for me as an end user.
You as an end user are not party to the agreement that Apple has with the developers. You are of course free to choose not to do business with parties that do not support Apples payment system, but the same goes for Stripe, PayPal, Adyen and all the other PSPs.
> I’m also arguing for the tax because I believe that Apple has the absolute right to collect such a tax, why wouldn’t they?
Because they are abusing their position to do so.
> They’re far from being a monopolist.
Your understanding of what constitutes a de-facto monopoly is broken.
> Stockholm syndrome?
> Mobile app development sounds like the last thing I’d want to have anything to do with.
That is your choice and your right, but plenty of high performance and/or low level applications have no choice but to go native.
> You as an end user are not party to the agreement that Apple has with the developers. You are of course free to choose not to do business with...
Under the same logic, you, as the developer is also free to not do business with Apple and build on iOS.
Or you could see it with the angle that Apple is in effect hired by us, the end-users, to negotiate on our behalf to ensure the ecosystem cannot dictate unilateral terms unfavorable to us.
>Or you could see it with the angle that Apple is in effect hired by us, the end-users, to negotiate on our behalf to ensure the ecosystem cannot dictate unilateral terms unfavorable to us.
Then continue to only use Apple App Store and Apple Payments. Free market says if all the end-users truly believe that, all the others will fail from no users. So why is Apple so afraid of a little fair competition?
I don't think your description of "free market" with some arbitrary constraint on singular party, i.e. Apple, is quite self-consistent, but I digress; the argument is not hinged on holding "freeness of the market" as self-evidently good.
> if all the end-users truly believe that, all the others will fail from no users
Not necessarily. There is a possibility that each individual user may not be valuable enough to the developer to negotiate the Terms of Service imposed on them by the developer. Nor does logistics allow for such negotiation. By voting with our wallets, Apple acts on behalf of all of us securing some of our interests, meanwhile pocketing some money for their mediation service, just like a lawyer, non-profit, union, lobby group, co-op, or agent would do.
I mean free market as opposed to a monopoly market.
>By voting with our wallets, Apple acts on behalf of all of us securing some of our interests, meanwhile pocketing some money for their mediation service, just like a lawyer, non-profit, union, lobby group, co-op, or agent would do.
If you vote against the other options, they'll fail is my point. But by preventing me from being able to vote for other options, Apple is being anti-competitive.
Sure you have a choice--most obvious is Android and in fact that is what most people use. I really don't understand how you can call Apple a monopoly unless you call all vertical integration such. You don't have a choice of your own seat manufacturer when you buy a vehicle either. That's not particularly "anticompetitive".
In any case, this is beside my original point. My original comment was addressing a specific argument that suggested users are not a stakeholder in this matter because the agreement is between developers and Apple, which I find to be a ridiculous characterization. I am not holistically evaluating Apple's market positioning here. As one other comment points out, this is ultimately a broad political choice for the society at large, not necessarily one that could be concluded one way or the other by abstract analysis.
[My personal opinion on this matter is pretty much orthogonal to the "payment methods" debate which I find to ultimately be a negotiation between corporate entities on who earns how much. What I do want for the society to regulate is the ability for the end user to run their own software stack should they choose to, on a device they pay for. I am comfortable with the fact that should you choose to run iOS, you get the entire iOS experience.]
>Sure you have a choice--most obvious is Android and in fact that is what most people use. I really don't understand how you can call Apple a monopoly unless you call all vertical integration such
And what's wrong with more choice?
Because it's about defining the market. To me the market is iOS apps. Not Android apps. I can't get Android apps on iOS nor vice versa. The EU has ruled similarly when using anti-trust against Google: "Google's app store dominance is not constrained by Apple's App Store, which is only available on iOS devices." [0] It's about barrier of entry. "Android device users face switching costs when switching to Apple devices, such as losing their apps, data and contacts, and having to learn how to use a new operating system". A monopoly in California wouldn't be considered okay because you can always move to Florida.
And if you wanna bring up that car analogy, no car manufacturer has monopoly power. Using the term the way the FTC uses it: "a firm with significant and durable market power" [1], not an actual monopoly. You can't really say that Apple, the most valuable company in the world, isn't.
US anti-trust has ruled against vertical integration before when it has harmed competition in the "Hollywood Antitrust Case of 1948". Even if you say Apple isn't a monopoly, movie studios were an oligopoly like we have now with Google and Apple.
> You are of course free to choose not to do business with parties that do not support Apples payment system
Take a look at the videogames landscape on PC. There is an ever-growing amount of game launchers because each company refuses to pay that 30% to someone (e.g. Steam).
Having the option to create a store means almost everyone that can WILL create one. Not having that option forces everyone to play by the rules of the existing store.
As a consumer, I like Steam's policies about refunds, I like being able to buy any game with the same in-store credit or the same credit card, I like their client's features like download throttling or scheduling.
I certainly do not like that each half-assed client comes up with a bare bones implementation of the same thing and calls it a day. If Rockstar shits the bed and launches a terrible game, I can refund it on Steam but not on the Rockstar launcher.
Same case for Apple, the minute they allow external stores, half the apps will be pulled from the App Store into their own proprietary store and all the consumer protection would go out the window
>Not having that option forces everyone to play by the rules of the existing store.
So what you want is a convenient monopoly, when there is no such thing (unless it's under heavy government regulation). As a consumer, I like Epic's free games. GoG's policy of DRM-free. Which is why competition is good.
> You as an end user are not party to the agreement that Apple has with the developers
In the end this will be a political decision. I vote.
> Your understanding of what constitutes a de-facto monopoly is broken.
The monopoly argument may work in the US, but not in the EU. Apple may be up to nasty stuff that legislators should act against, but they’re certainly not a monopolist.
You as an end user are not party to the agreement that Apple has with the developers. You are of course free to choose not to do business with parties that do not support Apples payment system, but the same goes for Stripe, PayPal, Adyen and all the other PSPs.
> I’m also arguing for the tax because I believe that Apple has the absolute right to collect such a tax, why wouldn’t they?
Because they are abusing their position to do so.
> They’re far from being a monopolist.
Your understanding of what constitutes a de-facto monopoly is broken.
> Stockholm syndrome? > Mobile app development sounds like the last thing I’d want to have anything to do with.
That is your choice and your right, but plenty of high performance and/or low level applications have no choice but to go native.