They don't extort anything and they aren't dominant. They're a minority player in the market. If anyone is dominant, it is Google. Despite Apple being more expensive, people still choose them. This isn't lock in, it is because they're the luxury, cool choice.

The Apple App Store led with an estimated revenue of $85.1 billion (roughly £70.5 billion) in 2021, responsible for 63% of total app revenue. In the same year, Google Play Store generated revenues of nearly $47.9 billion (roughly £39.7 billion) through Android apps

Right, because the Apple app store is used by people that own iPhones, which are expensive luxury goods for people with lots of disposable income. The Android app store is used by everyone else. The Apple app store is still a minority player in terms of market share.

I genuinely don't understand how you can simultaneously post these stats and claim that Apple's business model is bad for people that develop apps for Apple's devices. As a collective they make BILLIONS of dollars per year more.

Far more egregious is that Google charge a similar fee and do basically nothing to moderate the platform at all. If anything is rent-seeking, it is that. Apple does a huge amount to moderate and review apps when they go out. It was a hassle, as an app developer, to have to go through that process. But the result is an ecosystem where people trust apps enough that they'll spend significant amounts of money on them. Who would spend anything on an Android app when you have no idea if it's actually good or if it just has a completely astroturfed review score?

Apps, fine. Charge people, say, $99/year to be on their platform and get moderation. But digital goods? Not fine.

Google also reviews apps using humans, and allows 3rd party app stores.

Interestingly they say their 15-30% fee pays for Android development. You'd think Apple's $400 profit per phone would pay for iOS development.

Apparently Google Play Store Kindle app has the same restrictions

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