[they4kman]

The customer wants convenience, the developer wants to give convenience, and Apple charges 10-30x the going rate of merchant fees for it. And neither the developer nor the customer can pick a different style of convenience. I don't think it can be a free market if customers can't choose another option and developers can't compete with existing options.

[martimarkov]

Well I disagree. You can choose Android. What I feel normally lacks from the discussion is that the consumer has consciously chosen the OS and device. That choice needs to be respected and I think developers are now trying to augment what platform is doing. Apart from making more money I can’t see a reason how this benefits the customer (except edge cases - happy to be proven wrong here but haven’t really thought of a good example when this actually very useful). Also it’s more convenient for me to use Apple Pay and manage my subscriptions from the Settings app than from the 20 diff apps I have subscribed to and each one has an incentive to incorporate dark patterns in order to keep me from cancelling. Apple on the other hand cares for me being the next iPhone, watch, Mac, iPad so they Are not too fussed by me cancelling a subscription which I don’t use or want anymore.

[saagarjha]

How sure are you that customers chose iOS solely for their ability to pay Netflix via IAP, and not like the fact that Apple makes the sexiest, fastest phones that run iMessage and let them call their mom using FaceTime? Like, this is how people choose operating systems, I doubt most users even know how the 30% cut works (not that Apple makes it easy for you to tell them…)

[EugeneG]

"It's not a free market! Apple sucks and I want to use different products... and sure there are countless alternatives available for purchase online and in stores... but I can't and I don't switch because I love Apple and it has the best product and the others aren't as easy to use. Tyranny!"

[dkonofalski]

The developer is not giving convenience if I can't use my payment information, contact info, and shipping info that I've already provided. Having to give all that info again to a payment processor that I don't necessarily know or trust is not convenient.