[fpgeek]

But it is effectively equivalent to sharecropping (with a somewhat lower percentage, I suppose), which some people reasonably consider a form of serfdom. Developers are willingly ceding 30% of their profits for the benefits of using Apple's infrastructure the same way sharecroppers willingly ceded a portion of their crop (typically 50%, but higher in more exploitative relationships according to Wikipedia) in return for the right to use an owner's land.

In both cases, landlord is more powerful than the sharecropper and can set "take-it-or-leave-it" terms (which, if you consider game theory, suggests that the landlord will capture most of the profits of the relationship - limited only by a sharecropper's alternative ways of making a living and their willingness to make decisions that are economically irrational in the short term in order to improve their situation in the long term).

I could even go on to talk about sharecroppers buying seed, fertilizer from the landlord and compare that to developers buying laptops, paying for developer programs and so on, but this analogy has probably been pushed far enough as it is.