Apple Still Punching Down in the EU

I have happily used iPhones since getting my 3GS. I got the first iPad, first 12” iPad, first Apple Watch. I run my business on a Mac Studio after upgrading from the iMac Pro. I love my Apple products.

Apple is burning a lot of good will pulling the crap it’s pulling in the EU. I understand a lot of the business stuff that they are doing, but the one thing that drives me craziest is how the talk about the 30% developers pay.

Apple claims that they get 30% because of investment they put into APIs and the platform. Is crap unless they put 30% of hardware sales into a “developer fund” that they share with developers. Hardware with no software is useless. Apple is handsomely compensated, just look at their stock price.

That they use the API argument in a world of Turbo Native, React Native, and friends is a joke. Not to mention the games they are playing with PWAs in the EU.

If Microsoft or Apple took a 30% commission from (non-app store) PC software sales people would flip. I’m not sure why they think it’s ok on mobile where the only difference is that they have complete control over all the stores.

This is not to say Apple doesn’t contribute. It’s simply to say that Apple it completely ignoring the contribution of developers into making Apples platform appealing to customers. Apple’s store is not a pristine wonderland and app glory, and for most business they off little extra compared to a service like Paddle who charges 1/6th of