Why are you people defending Apple?

I think you're grossly underestimating how much 30% of revenues means. Let's look at how this could actually affect you. Lets forget for a second that Amazon is even part of this issue. Let's stick to straight software development, what HN knows best. Let's look at the profit margins of some of the best software companies: http://www.google.com/finance?catid=us-54399928&sort=ANI...

Look at what percentage of revenue that net income is, and count how many are above 30%. Now, isn't it a bit more difficult to make money on a product if your 30% margin is gone? Sure, Apple deserves some money for payment processing and distribution, maybe something for acquiring a new customer but certainly not 30% of all revenue.

Yes, you may say you can just raise price, right? Well, to compensate you would have to raise price over 40%. Meanwhile, the customers have already demonstrated the prices they are willing to bear, so that doesn't quite work.

So now, if you've started a business of developing iOS apps, you're severely hampered by this 30% revenue cut you're giving to Apple. The small guys will probably deal with it because they won't know better, but think of it this way: Apple has just taxed 30% of the value you have created for your users. That's 30% of your income.

You can argue this is a retail model and they should get a margin the same way you do if you sell something through Best Buy, but it becomes anticompetitive when they've blocked off any option you have to sell directly to a customer or through any other channel. The companies on that list do very little business through retail, and they would suffer if they had to give up 30%. Moreover, Apple's own margins would take a hit if they had to sell everything through a retail partner.

(Also don't get why it matters that Rhapsody, Netflix, Amazon don't create content. Apple doesn't create most of the stuff that goes into an iPhone, but that doesn't mean they don't add value and shouldn't be able to make money)

Why did you remove the comments? Now all we see is some changed comment that was downvoted before you changed it.

Yes, people do not understand the purpose of voting. It's not to express agreement or disagreement but rather to rate the validity of the points made in the comment.

Anyway. I did disagree with you, but I upvoted your comment and I would have liked to continue the argument. Now I can't because you removed your comments.

People tend to build their identities around their affiliation. Attacking Apple probably makes him feel like you are attacking him. Similarly his support of Apple is merely him supporting his own identity. It's silly, I know, but people do that all the time. It's freakishly hard for people caught in the identity/affiliation trap to disentangle that aspect of their psyche's.

It's often why you can observe fantastic levels of cognitive dissonance in people over politics or religion or other things that people build affiliation around...it's simply easier to think inconsistently than to untangle one's own identity. Rational evaluation simply goes out the window since identity is primal, emotional.

Apple is the best in the world at building the link between identity and affiliation. They don't just sell stuff, they sell an identity. Being an Apple fan is being one of the cool kids, it's part of the "in" crowd, it keeps you from being a boring accountant looking guy in a suit, it's hip, it goes against "the man", etc. All of these are what Apple's advertisements sell, not their stuff. Apple's advertisements don't just list off features and talk about why they are better, they show cool looking people dancing in silhouette, or hip young dudes looking disdainfully on a suit wearing PC user, or a colorful Olympic athlete throwing hammers at gray talking heads, etc. etc. etc.

"Buying Apple makes you cool"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/Imamacimapc.jp...

"Buying Apple makes you stand out in a crowd"

http://www.iphonefootprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/ma...

"Buying Apple makes you an olympian"

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/02/04/images/apple-1984.jpg

"Buying Apple makes you an artist"

http://top-technology-reviews.com/uploadfiles/top-technology...

"Buying Apple makes you a great dancer"

http://adstrategy.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/apple.jpg

"Buying Apple makes you smart like Einstein"

http://ivovodanovic.cl/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/old-apple-...

"Buying Apple makes you a leader among men"

http://adhdrollercoaster.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/appl...

etc. etc. etc.

Pick a positive trait, things that people want to be and Apple has probably run an ad campaign around it. It's why people line up around the block to buy a new Apple product sight unseen. They need to show their affiliation with the club of Apple.

Apple doesn't advertise cute, or quirky, or super technical, they advertise the kind of person that people want to be. They advertise the quarterback in HS or the head cheerleader. They advertise Martin Luther King JR. and Einstein. They advertise the philosophical cool guy with the vintage yet cool outfit that hangs around coffee shops and debates French literature. They don't advertise the nerdy guy in his parent's basement, or the D&D geek. They don't advertise the quiet genius, toiling away on hard and esoteric problems for years on end, they advertise leaders! They don't even really advertise "ease of use", "great price", "best specs". They advertise a coherent image.

And then, to close the deal? They actually provide a pretty nice piece of hardware and some pretty decent software that's well integrated, well thought out and generally easy to use. This justifies the entire image building exercise.

So the moral to my story is that, don't get frustrated with people who appear to have useless blind allegiance to the cult of Apple. What you are asking them to do is to be objectively critical of themselves, which to be honest, almost no one is able to do.

(full disclosure, I have plenty of areas where I have this problem myself, I guess it's just basic human nature)

I suspect that, like most outrageous things Apple does

1) that we'll all have a big fight

2) Apple will continue with what they're doing for a while while we all get enraged and a bunch of us and the consumers jump platforms.

3) After months of fighting, Apple will relent and put a saner policy in place.

4) All will be right in the world

5) Wash, rinse, repeat.

More likely than not, Apple is probably doing what they do best which is to feel out the upper ceiling of the market, do a credible job of defeating their competition, find out where a comfortable profit can be made, then screw up any path to bigger market share because the margins (and the ability to control the ecosystem) aren't there.

All of his comments in this thread except one were positive at the time he removed them. This is some kind of hissy fit.