[viktorcode]

You are thinking from the point of recouping the costs, while in reality it works on a simpler premise: profitability.

Suppose you have your Android app. You are thinking about porting that to iOS. So, for you the calculation will go like this: will selling that on App Store be worth it after paying Apple's fee and cost of porting? If the answer is yes, then you proceed to expand your app's market share. You may as well price your app differently, if you think that will sell more.

[zamadatix]

You've oversimplified on the assumption there is only a single transaction rate (30%). In the real world there is not (even on iOS, though Apple does make it difficult and force it to be hidden), hence why the real world examples given above did not follow your theory the 30% is built into the initial optimal price setting. It ended more like 3%, i.e. the average transaction rate, for anyone not using IAP and as close to +30% that could be reached using typical $0.99 or $0.49 price increments for anyone using IAP (or just cancelling IAP).

This is what the above examples are actually doing, not a theory of what I think it makes sense for them to do.

In the Apple utopia where everyone would always use their payment method your simplified answer would be more correct and the Apple tax would be somewhere between >0% and <infinity% (though usually marginally less 30%) as well as a unique value per app. It would never be <0 though it would be possible (and almost expected) for the app price difference between platforms to be greater than the Apple tax alone. This method of course is god awfully impossible to actually compare as it's theoretical values of multiple what-if's, hence why I went the "more complicated" route of just explaining the Apple tax has to eventually hit the consumer on some level from a recoup perspective.