foregoneconclusion

avon b7 said: As the article touches on, if you are a de facto gatekeeper you have monopoly control over price structuring, commissions end up being passed onto consumers who can end up paying more through the lack of competition. 

Apple doesn't control pricing of apps. It's not like WalMart where the manufacturer has to individually negotiate a price to sell the product to WalMart and then WalMart charges whatever price they want for the product in stores. Apple sets the commission rate based on revenue and the developer sets the price.

The EU attempted to trot out Spotify as an example of the commission rate being anti-competitive versus 1st party Apple Music (which isn't subject to commission), but that blew up in their face when it turned out 99% of Spotify's iOS subscribers were paying via the internet (which isn't subject to commission either). 

Hreb said:

Metal 3 may very well be great, but it does seem like a major (and perilous) assumption that any game developers will care to bring games to macos in the absence of native Vulkan support -- aside from the 3 games already announced of course.  Metal may be well established for mobile games but it is a remote island when it comes to AAA.

Another glaring omission is the complete lack of support for adaptive sync on external displays.  Apple is years behind in this department.

Metal 3 is compatible with games using DirectX 12, Vulkan and MoltenVK. That was a major point for showing No Man's Sky (Vulkan) and Resident Evil Village (DirectX 12 on Windows). 
 

Commission rates for e-books are the same or worse than for apps in the App Store and e-books are unquestionably stagnant from a technological point of view. The e-book that you buy in 2022 is no different than the e-book you could buy in 2012. You're not going to "wow" anyone by showing them an e-book on your new phone. There is no constant push to improve e-books technologically like there is with apps.

dantheman827 said: Amazon in comparison gives anywhere from 1% to 20% depending on the category with most being less than 5%

FYI: Amazon charges a 30% commission on e-book sales if they're priced between $2.99 and $9.99. The commission increases to 65% if you charge below or above that price range.

Pyronuke said:

StrangeDays said:

So they take 95% from their platform, but sued Apple for taking the 15/30% from its platform. Hmmm

They actually take 12% (Epic Games store)

Common misconception. Epic had two commission tiers at the time of the Epic/Apple court case: 12% (developer handled all of the transactions/financials) or 27% (Epic handled all of the transactions/financials). That was one of the ways that Apple called Epic's bluff on the commission rate. Apple added a second tier at 15% that still provided all the same services as the 30% tier.