Apple, Epic, and the App Store

> I think Epic's real motivation here is to run their own App Store

Yeah, you're right. That is the outcome that we want. We want multiple stores on iOS. I thought advocates for this position had been really clear, but maybe we haven't been clear enough.

For the record, we want there to be multiple app stores on iOS.

> build a bigger moat and get the profits themselves

You're worried that Epic's store is going to eventually overrun Apple's and then Epic will somehow prevent other stores from being installed on iOS devices? You're worried that we'll get a bigger moat than literally not being able to run any code on the device that doesn't pass through Apple's review process?

What on earth would that theoretical bigger moat even look like?

> and get the profits themselves (12% cut, 5% if you use Unreal Engine)

I want to follow up on this in the context of your worry about moats. We live in a world where Apple has complete control over the app ecosystem, and you're frightened that another company might get control and... offer better terms than we have right now?

What specifically is the horror scenario that you're frightened of?

> They also make exclusive deals, where the games can only bought in their store for 6-12mo.

I can only imagine how upset you're going to be when you learn about how Apple Arcade works.

> Tencent is also 40% shareholder in Epic

Apple actively censors thousands of apps in China from the app store right now. You are worried about accidentally funding censorship through indirect means, and your response to that is to directly take the side of one of the censors.

But you also bought Apple approved tires, Apple approved child seat, Apple approved free miles on the highway and Apple approved breaking fluid

You can't use them anywhere else, maybe you can sell them, but you have to reset the car to factory settings

Whatever you bought cannot be used anywhere else, except another Apple car

That's how vendor lock in works, I'm European but I know US laws don't appreciate when a company locks users in

Out of all the arguments against Apple's App Store policies, this has always struck me as the weakest. I remember app prices for Palm Pilots, and for that matter, app prices in general before the App Store came along -- and they were way, way higher. In 2005, a program like Pixelmator for iOS would have at least been $40; on iOS, it's $5. And how much do you think LumaFusion, a multitrack video editor, would have gone for in 2005? If it had been under $200 reviews would have been calling it a steal. It's $30. And that seems insanely high.

So the problem with the "Apple's cut artificially inflates prices" argument is that prices have demonstrably been in free fall during the app era. We can argue that LumaFusion would be able to cut their price to $25, or Pixelmator to $4, and that somehow "proves" that developers have to increase their price, but it's not super compelling.

> I don't see any reason why a company needs to pay any percent of their revenue instead of a flat fee. You pay a % of revenue when someone is your partner or an investor in your company. Apple is neither.

Well, Apple is acting as a payment processor, and payment processors charge you a percent of revenue. I don't think anybody's gonna run credit cards for you for a flat $19 a month fee; if Apple charged only what Stripe did (30¢ + 2.9%), LumaFusion's fees would be over $19 on their 11th copy sold per month and Pixelmator would hit it on sale 65.

Apple has to pay for these somehow. They can either get the money by charging more for each iPhone or they can get the money from the real end-users of these products: Developers.

Right, and the rest of us don't want that, and I also don't want games or apps that don't adhere to Apple's rules. You want another option of App Stores because you want don't want to pay for the user base that Apple created and maintains. You want to embed permanent location tracking in your apps, abuse user data, and not have to have your crappy practices out in the open when Apple shows the "nutrition scorecard" for your app.

That's not what I want on my iPhone. If your app doesn't conform to the App Store, then that's your problem, not mine. I'll vote with my dollars here. I want the iPhone just the way it is, even if that means fewer apps from bad actors.

> We live in a world where Apple has complete control over the app ecosystem, and you're frightened that another company might get control and... offer better terms than we have right now?

Yes that's exactly what I want. I want Apple to have complete control over the ecosystem. They've earned my complete trust.