Third party app needs really depend on what you do with your phone. For some people third party apps make up 90% of the use time, for others hardly any at all. Thing is, it shouldn't be up to Apple, or the third parties to decide which we get to use. Personally I'm happy with the app store for the few apps I use. I think my average daily app use is 3-5 apps, half Apple and half third party, and I wouldn't want to be forced to use one or the other. What about Apple's cost for the system? An apps developers use of the App store system is constant, not a one time thing, each user download, each update the developer releases costs something. Should Apple be compensated by 30% of all revenue for each purchase/subscription from the app? I don't think anyone could convince me the App Store system costs even close to that to maintain and improve. Should Apple profit from it? Yes, how much is fair to developers is the question in my mind. Right now, at least to me it seems heavy handed. I'm trying to come up with a good metaphor here, based on what Ryan said earlier about other revenue systems built into an app, so I hope this works, sort of. If a government placed a flat 30% sale tax on a type of goods and services, and then asked for another cut on things not even related to the service in order to be allowed to use that service, we would all be up in arms, yes? So why shouldn't developers be angry about that? That's all I'll say on that front.
The Apple app store should be able to exist for those who want to use it, and it's safe vetted system is fine for my app store limited use. Should there be room for other systems for developers who don't want to pay the Apple tax? Maybe. Question is, who is to say the other app stores would really be any different? Let's face it, they will be out for as much money as they can get from developers as well. Maybe they take a smaller cut, but at the end of the day will it be all that different? We've seen other companies and systems virtually copy Apple's model time and time again, why would this be any different?
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