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Comment by dmitrygr | Hacker News Reader

I legitimately do not understand this line of questioning. Do people really think that developing an OS and all those fancy APIs is free? Part of the R&D costs have always been recouped by hardware sales, and part have always been recouped by fees from the store. Did people really expect Apple to start working for free? And no, I don’t think the usual “they make enough from hardware” is a valid counter argument. Anyone who makes anything is free to decide what to charge for it.

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The problem is that there are really only a few large platforms: windows, Android, macOS and iOS. These are also owned by three mega corps. The issue here is that free market mechanisms break down in the small competitor count limit.

So your suggestion is to make it uneconomical to be a competitor in this market? sure, that'll help

So you think Apple will go broke if they have to compete with sideloaded apps?

Keep in mind, we already pay them for dev tools each year, just like how we pay Microsof for visual studio.

What makes you competent to decide what someone else charges for their work? Unless it is your work, you get no say in how much it costs.

Ummm…might want to tell that to Apple. Check the guidelines.

If us devs were smart, we’d organize and have our apps go on a maintenance break until Apple and Google remember what a computing and platform is without 3rd party devs.

You’re already seeing that with car and headset though.

We already pay them an annual fee, buy a bunch of hardware to test on, and pay to send people to their App Store where they sell ads on our trademarked names.

On the flip side, when’s the last time you’re seen a successful computing platform without 3rd party software?

Simply put, this should be a mutually beneficial relationship like it is on Mac and windows…but Apple and Google are trying to change the code of conduct for mobile so they can not only take their piece, but ours too.

Should you also have to pay each telco a fee to make your phone number reachable? Should Comcast be allowed to block traffic if you don’t pay them a toll?

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