All: These $BigCo vs. $BigCo threads are getting increasingly repetitive and nasty. Please don't post like that. The HN guidelines ask you not to, and every such post degrades this place for future discussion. We're trying to stave off the well-known internet phenomenon in which the site becomes nothing but repetition and anger, and the best users all leave. We want <i>curious</i> conversation here, so if you have a substantive point to make, please make it thoughtfully, and if you don't, please don't comment until you do.<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html</a>
Back in the day, Apple simultaneously:<p>* wanted a 30% cut on all Kindle book sales (sold via iOS)<p>* had negotiated with most major book publishers that any book distributer (aka Amazon, Apple, B&N, etc) must sell their books at exactly a 30% markup.<p>---<p>Also, we had built a native store experience for the Kindle app before launching it.<p>Yet, after submitting to Apple (and not hearing anything back for weeks), Apple announced their <i>intent</i> to roll out in-app purchasing many months later<p>They also immediately blocked our submission and forced us to take out all references to the native store or even linking to the web store.
Would you be okay with if a web based company, say Google:<p>1) Delisted you if you didn't support their payment option.
2) Blocked any content that tried to criticize it.
3) Forced you to support their login as an option, and also didn't place it as the first option on the list.<p>Then why are we okay with someone trying to do this for the mobile internet?<p>Apple treats apps like they own the phone. My own mental model is it's my phone, and apps are an extension of the mobile internet.
FB: Apple blocked us from warning small businesses that 30% of their revenue on Facebook goes to Apple. Fuck Apple.<p>Also FB: We're a multi-billion dollar company but we can't cover the 30% ourselves because fuck Apple.<p>Also also FB: Apple warned users that Facebook tracks them which hurts advertisers because users think tracking is awful. Fuck Apple.
A 30% cut isn’t really out of line with the markup most stores or distributors put on nearly everything you buy, nor are secret business details.<p>I’m not trying to judge right or wrong, but hoping to point out a store taking that cut is the standard not the exception.
This situation is very good for the first start-up that will offer a website that works like an application store and provides crossplatform games/apps etc. along with a good SDK. Time for the web to neutralize the old monopolies
Is this the end of Apple? Will I actually switch mobile platforms from Android because third party stores are now available? Tune in next time on "2020: The Year Monopolies get questioned"
All utilies (Electricity, water, phone, etc.) should ask their commercial customers a 30% cut because they build and provide an ecosystem that is mandatory for them to exist.<p>Going a little further and what if MasterCard and Visa requested a 30% cut to apple. They should also ban Apple from CC acquiring if they make this public.
So Apple wants a 30% cut on the money that could easily go to small business owners and artists. A $2T company that makes tens of billions in profit every year can't help being as extractive as it can in the middle of pandemic when everyone is struggling.<p>How can anyone be okay with this blatant abuse of power? How does it matter if the event is online or offline. If it's happening on a Zoom call or in a coffee shop. Apple isn't just harming big companies like Fortnite, it's harming individual creators. If this isn't case for anti-trust, I don't know what is.
This is really why the law should come down like a ton of bricks on Apple. They aren't just bleeding everyone dry, they're also trying to prevent people from realizing Apple is doing it.
Interesting how every big dog is attacking Apple as they continue to be the lone-wolf in enabling privacy and a secure platform for their users. Apple users are mostly computer illiterate because its Apple’s mission statement to enable computing for everyone. Because of their ease of use, they are now targeted to open up their platform in ways that will jeopardize both their increasing user-privacy and user-security.