[margana]

How would Samsung/Google/etc recoup the costs associated with allowing third party app stores on Android? How would Microsoft recoup the costs associated with allowing third party app stores on Windows? How would Valve recoup the costs associated with allowing third party app stores on Steam Deck? How would Apple recoup the costs associated with allowing third party app stores on macOS? Have you really lived in such a closed iOS bubble for so long that you forgot that literally the entire rest of the industry handles it just fine?

[thebruce87m]

You’re almost there. Let me finish your train of thought:

In order to recoup the costs they would have to increase prices elsewhere. Having third party access from the start as part of the value proposition would mean they had already priced that in like the others, but they didn’t, so they haven’t.