[BBLISA] 30% Apple

[Dewey Sasser]

Apple is using platform monopoly to effectively force developers into 
certain "agreements".  They have established one (defacto) agreement and 
then, before various developers have seen return on their time 
investment, they are dictating a much less advantageous agreement.  I 
wonder how many developers would have invested time in this platform had 
they known of this up front.

To me, this is dishonest.  It is also a poor business decision, and I 
hope this will hurt their platform -- I don't really have anything 
against Apple, but I don't want to see this type of practice thrive.  
(Full disclaimer:  I've never particularly liked Apple because I want to 
control my computing experience, not have them do it.)

Apple does not seem to view their devices as products that you buy, but 
rather an "experience" to which you subscribe.  From that view this is a 
very reasonable step -- people are getting an "experience" for which 
Apple is not being compensated

The biggest profit for Apple is not the individual developers -- most of 
whom I imagine already sell an app through the app store as their only 
market channel, but companies like Amazon and (perhaps more likely) 
Netflix, who do most of their sales outside of Apple channels.

Amazon is not small, already has their own, fairly popular e-Book 
reader, and eBooks are on the rise.  They could likely take their bat 
and ball and go home.  Netflix, if they want to reach the mobile market, 
is stuck (for now) with the iPad.  I also notice that Netflix plays in 
the media delivery space, which is the space in which Apple re-invented 
itself and likely wants to dominate.

I hope this fails miserably, as ultimately the consumer pays the price 
and I don't want to see the distribution channel taking a large chunk of 
the profits (RIAA anyone?).

Wild speculation:  this might be a "panic" move -- try to monetize their 
tablet monopoly before they lose it as Android enables viable tablet 
alternatives.

--
Dewey