Re:Apple's bad faith 27% tax on web purchases
by lmm on Wednesday January 17, 2024 @10:35PM
(#39037429)
> Epic charges $100 per game in their store, vs. Apple's $99/yr for access to the store, and the latest tools.
Plus having to buy development hardware from Apple, which is a pretty significant cost for small developers.
> but one of the benefits Apple gives customers is that you don't give your payment details to everyone, decreasing the odds it gets mishandled.
If they think that's worth an extra 15%, they can compete for it on a level playing field.
> Does that make Apple evil? Epic would have you think so. But Epic also just needed to layoff a bunch of people, despite Fortnite being a money printing machine, despite their Engine royalties, and despite their own store's fees. Sure, Apple has cash to spare, but should we really be legally forcing Apple to adopt a business model that is failing Epic itself?
What kind of backwards logic is this? If company A is swimming in cash, and company B is running out of money, it's far more likely that company A is ripping off its customers than company B. Yes, we should be forcing Apple to compete for customers like everyone else has to. Given real competition the market will converge on a fair rate where a hardworking publisher/store maintainer can make a decent but not excessive profit, and we might see some better stores out of it as well.
Plus having to buy development hardware from Apple, which is a pretty significant cost for small developers.
> but one of the benefits Apple gives customers is that you don't give your payment details to everyone, decreasing the odds it gets mishandled.
If they think that's worth an extra 15%, they can compete for it on a level playing field.
> Does that make Apple evil? Epic would have you think so. But Epic also just needed to layoff a bunch of people, despite Fortnite being a money printing machine, despite their Engine royalties, and despite their own store's fees. Sure, Apple has cash to spare, but should we really be legally forcing Apple to adopt a business model that is failing Epic itself?
What kind of backwards logic is this? If company A is swimming in cash, and company B is running out of money, it's far more likely that company A is ripping off its customers than company B. Yes, we should be forcing Apple to compete for customers like everyone else has to. Given real competition the market will converge on a fair rate where a hardworking publisher/store maintainer can make a decent but not excessive profit, and we might see some better stores out of it as well.