Apple is placing warnings on EU apps that don't use App Store payments

theverge.com

7 points·ColinWright··8 comments

Apple’s App Store fees are to Apple what Search is to Google: a license to print money. On the plus side, this allows Apple to invest in extremely expensive, high precision hardware that other companies can’t afford, and it enables Google to fund R&D that led to breakthroughs like the Transformer architecture. But on the flip side, these companies also crush competition and stifle innovation in other areas. One could argue either way about whether these huge corporations are doing more good than harm or vice versa.

So in other words, they're flagging apps which cost less by virtue of not paying the Apple gateway tax.

How could this possibly go wrong?

Why would the apps cost significantly less? I think you don’t understand pricing power. You’ll get a slight discount as a means of enticing you away from the app store but you’ll give up an easy way to control subscriptions or prevent companies from storing your payment information. I’ll stick to the app store.

I think you don’t understand pricing power.

Typical fees for processing a payment are 2% or less.

Apple charges 30%.

If people are willing to pay $x for a product then you you don’t charge 30% less for it just because your costs have gone down. You should read up about pricing power.

If people are willing to pay $x

And if they are not?

Charging less can expand the market and lead to increased sales at the expense of your competition.

Avoiding Apples 30% cut gives vendors the opportunity to make their own decision.

You are naive if you think apps will go down in price more than a small amount as a result of this.

Seems like buying an Apple phone is entering into an abusive relationship.

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