And of course they have the better launcher. But now they are soo big, and they have such a de-facto monopoly that Epic had to go to extreme measures to get some market share. And that is using Fortnite kids parents money to give out free games all the time while actually paying the devs for the games and pay massive amounts of money to devs for exclusive deals. Its all money they have from Fortnite and (Chinese) investors. That also sucks but its better then just one store in town. Bethshitsda has given up on their own distribution and they are back 100% on Steam and they just suck it up and pay the 30% because they failed to compete, no surprise there.
I actually think the situations are pretty similar. Except that there is not even a open door to try to compete with the Apples Appstore right now. But they both take 30% and everyone is basically forced to pay it. Game devs can not just release on Epic. They must release on Steam and they must then pay 30% to Valve. If you release a mobile app you must release on Apple and Google play and they take 30%, its the same thing. Even thou there are other stores like Amazons shitty store you are just forced to publish on Google/Apple.
I just hope one day decentralization is so mainstream and consumers just buy from creators directly or some blockchain or something without a gatekeeper middlemen that sucks 30% off.
https://www.ifixit.com/repairability/smartphone-scores
Apple iPhone 14: 4
Apple iPhone 14 Plus: 7
Apple iPhone 14 Pro: 6
Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max: 6
iPhone 13 Pro: 6
iPhone 12 Mini: 6
iPhone 12 Pro: 6
iPhone SE 2020: 6
Samsung Galaxy S22: 3
Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra: 3
Fairphone 4: 10 (ok clear winner :D)
Google Pixel 6: 6
Google Pixel 6 Pro: 5
Google Pixel 5a: 6
Mi 11: 4
Huawei Mate 40 Pro: 4
Microsoft Surface Duo: 2
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra: 3
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip: 2
Motorola razr: 1
Google Pixel 4 XL: 4
> They may make a few things easier than Microsoft or Google
Enough few things that make them worthwhile purchasing.
> All their hardware is harder to repair than what is available from competition.
Possibly true, but at least my Apple hardware is built well and lasts. The awful MS ”flagship” I had the misfortune of being forced to buy flexes when I type on it. The Android phones I’ve had have been of such poor build and material quality I’m not surprised people need stuff repaired all the time. Not saying repair isn’t important, but in the last 5 years of Apple devices the one repair I’ve needed was a screen replacement which was done in 10 mins, for free.
Repairability and open source software isn't what the lay person cares about, at least not until they break their phones.
Apple's fix to failing software is the same as what any computer service will do for a random customer: reinstall the entire OS, see if that helped, restore the backup you definitely didn't forget to make. Someone deeply knowledgeable can often use tricks to get a broken system to run like normal again, but that's not easy or time efficient to offer as a service.
Apple removed the worst UI to intuit (3D Touch, or "you didn't press the unmarked location hard enough"). After that, I think their software isn't any better or worse than their competition's in terms of usability, unless you have a visual disability; iOS is still king when it comes to the quality of built in accessibility features for those who can't/struggle to see a screen.
It makes sense, though: Apple is all about making things easier for the user at the expense of third party developers. Users don't need to deal with app reviewers denying bugfixes because they used the demo credentials on the wrong app, they can just be mad at apps for being buggy. Banks all around the world are paying a secret Apple tax to let Apple users pay with iPay or whatever it's called.
I think the situation with Valve is different. Valve has competition and has had competition before; game launchers on Windows (and Linux, I suppose) are perfectly viable, it's just that none of their competition put any effort into making their game launchers as good as Valve's.
I think Apple should be able to charge whatever percentages they want, as long as you can install alternative app stores. If their customers accept the higher app prices in exchange for Apple's convenience features, the percentages are perfectly fair.