[Network2020]

As noted by the article, the largest segment of Apples revenue comes from services, and that segment is going to decrease within the next few years. The "Apple Tax" will be the downfall of Apple (and the "Google Tax" of Android). Apple is sacrificing long-term profit for short-term. It seems that it is rather hard to make a good amount of money at the moment when your customers sign up through the App Store.

Apple Developer Program = $99 annually (or Developer Enterprise Program = 299 annually)

30% cut of one-time, in-app purchases for content and digital goods.

30% first-year and 15% second-year cut of in-app subscription purchases.

Add in the cost of development, overhead, taxes and anything else and it is really hard to make money selling at the pricing rate that the majority of people are willing to pay for an app.

This would explain why many companies are shifting to creating apps where someone has to already be a member to use it. I'm just waiting for Apple to decide to change the terms to include physical product sales. That's when the ish is really going to hit the fan.