[wowohwow]

In the age of floppy disk and CD distribution of software, what was a retailers markup/cut? I imagine, Staples, Best Buy, CompUSA, Office Depot, etc were taking 30%+.

Shelf space, physical distribution, and store operations, etc costs money -- but so does bandwidth, security, tech ops, etc of all of these platforms.

Why isn't it ok for a digital store to require a markup to sell?

[Onewildgamer]

Staples, Best Buy, CompUSA, Office Depot are not a monopoly, if you do not like one as a distributor, you can go sell at another, or you can very well sell at your own mini shop, as any commerce should be.

Best Buy/CompUSA/Office Depot employees do not scare the customers and block the customers coming to you directly.

These are the few problems of monopoly that Apple so conveniently takes advantage of.

[wowohwow]

A mini shop seems possible on the iPhone. Does Apple prevent sideloading? I'm not familiar enough with the ecosystem.

How does Apple scare customers? By giving them a warning about sideloading?

A warning hardly seems monopolistic? Unless I'm misunderstanding your post

[ccheever]

Yes they prevent sideloading.

The scare part refers to warning dialogs that iOS would pop up if you used a link to an external web browser to collect payments. It would warn you that Apple wasn't running the payments and use scary language warning you about potential fraud, etc. to try to scare people away. They would also demand a 27% fee from developers for collecting money on the web outside apps if users were paying from following that link.

[Onewildgamer]

As a developer, you are allowed to put only one 'link' (not a more user friendly button/supporting text) to your own website for any purchase, it has to be a small font, and not in the checkout flow that takes to Apple pay. Which in itself is very scummy to begin with.

To top it, when the user actually sees that hidden 'link' and clicks on that, the user is put up with a big screen of message that the external website doesn't have security, privacy etc.

Check it yourself in this article by a developer: https://www.macstories.net/news/an-app-store-first-delta-add...

[danogentili]

You listed around 4 competing stores in your example, but Apple explicitly does not allow anyone to compete with their own store (except for in the EU, thanks to the DMA, and even then they take their cut, see below).

Another issue with the analogy is that when you buy a PC in a physical store, that store does not continue taking a cut of all software bought on that PC using i.e. unrelated digital stores (but that's precisely what Apple is asking from competing stores in the EU).

[SkiFire13]

> Shelf space, physical distribution, and store operations, etc costs money -- but so does bandwidth, security, tech ops, etc of all of these platforms.

But do they cost the same per unit sold?

> Why isn't it ok for a digital store to require a markup to sell?

It is ok, just not 30%.

[post_break]

Because there is only one store. Two if you count the Play store, but you're not required to be in that store. And when you become big enough, suddenly you're playing by different rules, rules where monopoly laws come into play.

[sauwan]

I'd agree with you if that cut was 5, maybe 10%. I just don't understand how they can justify 30% outside of "you don't have any other choice".

[wowohwow]

I think if you're ok with some markup you should be fine with any. At some point, it becomes so large users will leave the platform. Finding the right balance is not a guarantee

[an0malous]

I mean the parent comment explained the justification: 30% is traditionally not an outrageous cut for a distributor