They're a middle man providing a service that has taken different forms in the past. You can be cynical, but realistically their goal is to make a profit by providing a service which has it's own costs to cover. How much would those developers have reaped without their service?

Lots, lots more. If the Apple their devices weren't monopolistically locked down, or the store was an open market.

Really, you think its worth their cut, just to operate the store? How much overhead would it take you to put up a web store? They only get away with it because they aren't Microsoft.

> Really, you think its worth their cut, just to operate the store?

That's not all they do, though. They build the platform and heavily market it, too.

They get paid for their hardware. Everybody else does too - phones, Android. Apple adds to that a 'company store' model that is unjustified.

They do it only because they can get away with it.

That's a really bad attitude to have.

Does your grocery store pay its suppliers, or does it merely skim and give the farmers what's left over?

If Apple provided no value in the equation you might have a stronger case, but as it is they handle an awful lot, from payment processing to marketing to distribution.

Apple is providing you an audience that's ready to buy, that has cash in hand, and all you have to do is bang out an app they'll hit the "Buy Now" button for. Sounds to me like developers are the ones doing the skimming, at least by your definition.