Could you imagine if all telcos asked Apple for a 30% cut from all it's 30% cuts for network infrastructure maintenance?<p>Whether or not Apple likes it, iOS is critical infrastructure. If you want to make a device that a large portion of developed nations use, you're going to have to deal with the consequence of having people wanting it to be an open platform.<p>Operating systems are the infrastructure of the Internet. Just charge a fair fee for the App Store (based on usage/costs), allow alternate methods of side-loading apps, and of this will go away without substantive increases to privacy and security violations.