Developers revolt over Apple's new app store rules

There is only one other choice and for the first 5 years of the iPhone this choice was less competitive. Stop pretending things like that happen in a second and stop pretending every user can make the effort to switch after investing so much (money, time) on a particular platform. You also need to understand that for many, changing phones (or even tech in general) is something that happens only when it truly becomes necessary and this is every 3 to 5 years at best. You can't pretend that telling people to go buy a new hundreds of euros device just to fix an issue created by a corporation greediness is a realistic solution. It's not even something that someone who isn't into tech could realistically foresee before making their purchasing decision, pretending otherwise is bonkers.

You are just as disingenuous as Apple is and it is sad that you are defending the greed of a trillion dollar corp.

That being said, considering their behavior I'm pretty sure Apple has lost the good will of quite a few people, that are indirectly influential on the purchase of many tech devices of their social circle.

I am personally an Apple customer since the first iPod (was a teenager back then) and lots of Mac's plus many iPhones including the first but now I am pretty sure that my next smartphone will definitely not be an iPhone. Not that hard decision considering the insane pricing on Apple Silicon Macs (RAM/SSD) I had already started using my Mac less and my PC a lot more. And I make sure to avoid recommending anything Apple to anyone and actively discourage any purchase from them. I'm pretty sure I am not the only one doing that and I am pretty sure that Apple will feel this after a while...

Well, if they really own the phone, you had better make a strong argument on why I should pay for it.

If users were renting the phone for less than it cost to make, I guess you could have an argument about the device just being a necessary tool to access a service, including the app store (just like the alm-in-one modem/routers of telcos in EU).

But that is hardly the case, users pay for iPhones, and quite a lot of money at that, in fact much more in average than buyers of other brands. So now you REALLY need to explain how they can sell the phone for such a large amount of money and still retain ownership because the way I see it one of these statements cannot be right or it would be both illegal and something users really wouldn't agree to if it were presented like that to them.

The reality is that Apple is abusing its power over a device they already transferred ownership to someone else, because they already got money for it. Any other arguments are a mischaracterization of the situation and the only reason Apple got away with so much control so far is because we collectively (as a society) didn't completely understand what it meant.

But now we are trying to fix and bad faith argument like yours do not help at all...

> People clearly want to cut them out of the process, but this requires justification just as much as Apple's current stance.

Why should I need to justify my right to sell software to my customers without interference from an unrelated third party? Just because Apple has the technical ability to hold my customers hostage, that doesn't mean they have a right to.

> why should they be forced to do what you want, vs. you being forced to comply with what they want

Neither of these need to happen. Apple should not be forced to do anything other than to stop blocking their competitors from the market. And Apple's competitors should not be forced to comply with what Apple wants either unless Apple can entice them by offering something valuable in exchange, beyond a mob-style protection racket. (Nice application you have there. It would be a shame if someone were to block your customers from running it.)

> I personally prefer the high bar required for apps to get published.

Then buy your apps exclusively from Apple's app store. Nobody's forcing you to leave Apple's walled garden, Apple's just not allowed to be the only game in town anymore.

> eBay and Amazon also impose rules on sales

I can sell my product without going through eBay and Amazon. I can't sell my iOS app if Apple installs code on my customer's devices that blocks it from running.

>> I either comply with all of Apple's demands (however reasonable or unreasonable they might be), or I can't sell working software to my customers.

> This could be said of almost every market and community in existence.

What? No. What other market exists where one single company is able to act as a governing body, dictating the rules which their competitors must follow in order to be allowed to exist?

> The distinction between "reasonable" and "unreasonable" currently seems to be based on personal preference, the nature of an app, or the stage of a company.

Right, which is why different companies should be allowed to decide for themselves whether they consider Apple's terms reasonable, rather than Apple being able to essentially hold them at gunpoint and make any demands they want.