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A comment on U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone monopoly. Parent comment

Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by bink on Thursday March 21, 2024 @11:52AM (#39780186)
Charging 30% is outrageous to me, but it also appears to be the standard used by almost all of their competitors. It'll be interesting to see how the government convicts Apple of doing something that almost all other large companies are doing.

It's a no-win situation for them. If once they established themselves as the dominant player in the cell phone market they started undercutting everyone else on fees that could also be seen as predatory.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by skeptrune on Thursday March 21, 2024 @01:11PM (#39781423)
But sideloading is viable for everything else... I think that's the core argument that makes what Apple does criminal
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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by arrosenberg on Thursday March 21, 2024 @01:44PM (#39781896)
> it also appears to be the standard used by almost all of their competitors

FWIW - this is further evidence of anticompetitive behavior. In a competitive market, entrants would be trying to drive distribution costs to 0. The fact that Apple makes its entire App Store revenue off those distribution revenues is highly telling.

It would only be considered predatory if they charging a rate below their own costs of distribution. I.E. If it costs Apple $0.10 to cover the costs of app distribution per download, then it would be completely legal for them to charge $0.11, but illegal and predatory to charge $0.09.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by ribosometronome on Thursday March 21, 2024 @04:02PM (#39783695)
It's the standard used by almost all app stores, save for new entrants trying to buy their way into the market. Steam is 30% and there's nothing stopping you from installing alternatives. Nintendo's eStore is 30% and they control 100% of the mobile console market.
[ Parent | on HN ]