[Mindwipe]

> The single best move Europe could make would be to limit any digital stores to maximum 12% commission.

An app store ballot with mandatory permission for third party stores (save perhaps a small list of rules such as not a dedicated piracy service, but with no editorial lines at all) would be the best.

Then Apple's app store would have to compete in the market. If customers love it's curation as much as some people claim it has nothing to worry about.

[zepto]

This would kill the independent developer.

Imagine if just 30% of users choose just one other store.

Developers would lose 30% of their revenue if they didn’t support that store.

Now they have a bunch more work to do, for no extra money.

If you assume a multiplicity of stores, then this problem gets multiplied.

[Mindwipe]

The likelihood is that there are less than five stores.

The amount of extra work is trivial.

They would receive substantial extra revenue - stores wouldn't have to race to the bottom with IAP revenue, could do things like upgrade pricing, and the margins would fall to a fraction of what they are today. They could make their user experience better than the current mess of having to go to the web to purchase things and then come back to the app, boosting purchases. App stores would have to compete in providing useful toolsets for developers. Developers could attract new userbases of topics frequently censored by Apple, of which there are many.

Independent developers are being choked by the iOS app store and there would be a financial bonanza for them with more stores.

[zepto]

Stores would of course race to the bottom, because they would be competing for customers, not developers. If you think a store with higher prices for the same Apps is going to attract customers, I respectfully think you are wrong.

Developers would have to support any store with customers. New stores would not be developer friendly. They would belong to people with the reach to get the stores to be downloaded.

Guess whose stores those would be - Google’s and Amazons.

There will be no bonanza. No amazing indie stores. It will just be 3 bad stores racing to the bottom, and making things harder for people.