Can I publish an application that does not use Apple IP, let’s say something written in ARM assembler?
If not, then this argument about Apple IP is in bad faith, and not the real reason for anything.
Developers are not forced to develop iOS apps.
There are other alternatives like web apps or only developing for Android.
Developers have choices.
If you want a store in a mall, you have to pay higher leases and probably additional fees than you would if you operated out of your garage.
These arguments always seem to break down to an entitlement to sell things without paying for the products and services used to make the thing.
It should be a conversation more about reasonableness than entitlement.
If any global entity owned such a large percentage of malls that suppliers had little choice but to appear there in order to be competitive, and charged for mall use via a general tax on original and follow up economic activity (instead of in proportion to mall resources used), requiring products be registered with them, and copies of direct and follow up sales records, many people might protest that too.
I think a large part of the disagreement here is the idea that all digital things should be free compared to how the physical world has been forever.
To sell to a hardware store, for example, you need to offer the retailer 40% as a minimum. Then you need to pay, often compulsorily, trading terms, ranging fees, advertising levies and other off invoice things.
They have high costs to cover, but they also force shelf prices down as much as they can.
In my opinion, Supermarkets and hardware stores mis-use their market power way more than Apple appears to be doing
But Apple's (duopoly level) gatekeeper status on global/mobile applications, services, information and transactions is allowing them to hold back an enormous amount of latent innovation.
Shelf space is important and necessary for many businesses, but that isn't where tomorrow's world is being crafted.
However, the entitlement that is pervasive here that whatever Apple does is bad and it’s ok to expect them to give their work and infrastructure away for free is just crazy.
If we’re arguing about the value that developers get for what they pay, or if Apple is stifling innovation, or even if Apple is being maliciously compliant, then that’s a different conversation. I’m much more sympathetic to that.
But this is about people demanding Apple give their IP away from free so that they can make money from that expensive to make and operate infrastructure is ridiculous
But Apple owns one of only two global mobile app, service and info platforms, and so has tremendous power to limit and veto other businesses opportunities. Few businesses that need to operate in those ecosystems can be viable only operating in one of them.
And Apple is using that tremendous leverage to do two things normal businesses can't do.
Both of which damage the larger economy.
1) It is gatekeeping fundamental technological and business innovation. Apple limits the types of technology and business models that it will allow on its platforms, in favor of its own versions, or in favor of simply not enabling innovation it finds competitively threatening.
It is very difficult for new innovation on the margins to succeed starting out unable to participate in half the marketplace.
2. It has enough veto power over businesses, that it is able to tax other businesses' success, instead of charging for the value of its products and services to them. I.e. Apple charges a percentage of other businesses product and service revenue - instead of flat charges for its security checks, app listings, etc. Apple charges a percentage of follow up revenue, even if the transaction happens elsewhere. Apple charges a percentage on revenue of transactions that don't even require Apple's assistance or participation but were initially enabled by being on Apple's platform. It even charges a percentage of revenue for fourth parties it has no relationship with, such as for transactions by participants on third party markets, like digital art creators!
No normal business could extend taxes on other's productivity like that, to multiple levels of extraction, independent of productive value provided. They would be rapidly replaced by a competitor happy to make profits set by supply and demand, instead of taxes imposed by the ability to deny (or seriously hamper) entry to a strategic global market.
However, it is important (from a capitialism angle at least) to realize Apple has never falsely represented things. They have not done a bait and switch. They launched with their 30% commission rate on agency-model pricing almost 15 years ago (for apps, which was the same commission rate for music before that), and every change in licensing terms has been either enabling new transactions that were otherwise restricted, or by offering lower rates - such as for certain types of financial transactions, or certain business sizes.
They have also tended to do this with public policy changes rather than unilateral arrangements, although there are some partner programs around tvOS which are pretty tailor-built such that few companies would be able to take advantage of them.
And it is worth noting that they launched first as a platform for web based apps, and when you filter web technologies to actual standards (and not Google inventions) they tend to fight between first and second place with Chrome on actual interoperability.
Companies recognize the marketing value of having a native app within the App Store vs just a normal website. Apple obviously does as well.
> Apple charges a percentage of follow up revenue, even if the transaction happens elsewhere.
Note this is only true via 'new terms' to allow for steering toward alternative payment systems. Apple has always allowed you to operate your own out-of-store payment system (e.g. signing up for a Netflix account on the Netflix site, or purchasing kindle books on kindle.com) without paying them any commission.
However for most consumer apps (e.g. non. 'reader' apps like music, video, books and news) you had to provide a way to purchase in-app using Apple's system.
Many of these reader apps have played with in-app subscriptions off-and-on, which would make an interesting case study as they have been the category actually capable of deciding whether or not in-app purchasing was worth offering. Other categories are mandated.
I also feel like Apple has generally attempted to be well behaved, even as their market power has grown exponentially from a couple decades ago.
They are not the devil. But they are have reached a level of market breadth and power, that behavior not problematic even a few years ago is now an impediment for the market as a whole.
They deserve kudos for their success.
If they don't contort and distract themselves from more productive advances, by prioritizing holding onto leverage that has become too heavy handed for those they serve (and partner with), they are likely to become an even better company.
Microsoft has done fantastically well since giving up Ballmer's scorched Earth, Windows only philosophy. Ironically, if they had given up that control obsession sooner, focusing more on improving Windows shortcomings, they might have skipped the stall associated with that era and be even more dominant now.
Businesses should exist in malls to make a profit not to "be competitive". If it isn't profitable or the return on investment isn't worth it then they should not exist at that mall. It's the mall's fault if they charge too much and start to lose businesses to other malls and in turn lose visitors who would rather visit other malls.
But relatively fair competition is still a necessary component at the scale of an economy. If we are to retain any approximation of equality, equity and not hamper innovation.
If someone somehow owns the only viable commercial water supply for a city block, they can demand whatever they can get from any business on that block that needs water. And each business should make good decisions for itself in that context.
But if someone owns all the commercial water supply for a city, people are going to take political action to alter the economic equation if it starts leveraging that capability to the general cities detriment.
You could maybe import water through trucks or trains or something from somewhere else, but the costs for that would be brutal. Then the incumbent can bankrupt you instantly by undercutting your price, and then hike it back up as soon as you're gone. The Robber Barons in the 19th century used this very tactic frequently in anti-trust situations to hamper competition
>Then the incumbent can bankrupt you instantly by undercutting your price
This could be mitigated by longer term contracts so you are guarenteed a certain amount of payment to make it worth your time before the other company lowered their prices to start competing.
But the water system, or general utility problem, is interesting for many reasons.
Dual sets of infrastructure double the supply costs for a critical input like water, without actually increasing the supply that nature provides.
The solution to keep costs and prices down is then generally to give (or accept) a water supply monopoly, but with price regulation. That is the common solution to avoid price gouging in that monopoly situation.
An iPhone is not a mall. An iPhone is a device owned by the end user. If the end user wants to use an app by some third party developer, they should be able to.
We don't let car dealers from prevent customers from installing aftermarket addons.
Otherwise, it is within its full freedom to shut down their company in the EU.
They aren't "force" to operate in the EU after all. They could just shut down the company.
> If you want a store in a mall
If Apple wants to operate in the EU then they will have to follow the law.
> It should be a conversation more about reasonableness than entitlement.
Or, instead of that, the conversation could be able what a population can democratically decide what they want for their own country.
iOS apps can be written in assembly. I’ve done so myself out of curiosity, and it seems others have done so as well[0].
Of course, I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s excruciating.
That said, isn’t this just a bad-faith argument wrapped in an attempted gotcha? Where your premise is that if you don’t have a choice, then you shouldn’t be charged?
If Apple would say:
“Hey, you can use Swift for free because it’s open source, and you’re welcome to benefit from our contributions to it, and while you’re at it, you’re allowed to use all the basic low-level frameworks that communicate with the OS for free as well. But anything more than that, and we want you to pay us for it.”
Would you then be fully on board with them charging for using the remaining IP they own?
Are IP and ownership rights fluid based on your own moral framework, depending on if one has a choice or not?
Should I just blow past the toll booth of the only bridge here that allows me access to the rest of the country?
How about the only ISP that provides service here? Should they just allow me to use their infrastructure so I can write you this comment?
The other day I saw a nice TV at the local store. It’s pretty much the only place I can get this TV. Do I have your blessing to take it because I don’t have much of a choice?
I make apps for a living, I’m literally the only place on earth where you can get my app. My app saves users a lot of money. Should people just pirate my app and force me on a diet of hardtack?
Where does this fluidity start and where does it end?
I thought, for better or worse (and we can spend hours debating this part alone), we decided that when someone owns something, and especially when they create something, they get to decide who, if anyone, gets to use it and at what’s price if any.