> First of all -- app stores need to make money or at least break even.
No, they don't. The moment google and apple designed their phone os to favor the official app store over 3rd party, they lost the ability to make this argument.
> They cost a lot of money to run. So app stores take a cut of all transactions. If they let developers implement their own payment mechanisms, either in-app or with a single link, then developers will make every app free, with a link to their own payment, and the app store now becomes unsustainable and we're back to the same malware problems that plagued early versions of Windows.
They could make the dev pay for this directly, rather then take a cut. cost per-download plus cost per-review and failed appeal could cut this down dramatically.
They also don't get to push their business decisions on to devs that want access to device users.
Google decided to make the phone favor their app store, google decided to drive more users to only use and trust their app store. Google decided to use restricted apis to do this. Google decided to have google play protect trigger virus warnings on any 3rd party installed app. They made the business decision to do those things to the phone OS to disfavor 3rd party app stores, and i think the moment they did so, they stopped having a right to run the play store at a profit or even at break even, and they definitely stopped having a right to demand a cut on all of an apps profits.
No, they don't. The moment google and apple designed their phone os to favor the official app store over 3rd party, they lost the ability to make this argument.
> They cost a lot of money to run. So app stores take a cut of all transactions. If they let developers implement their own payment mechanisms, either in-app or with a single link, then developers will make every app free, with a link to their own payment, and the app store now becomes unsustainable and we're back to the same malware problems that plagued early versions of Windows.
They could make the dev pay for this directly, rather then take a cut. cost per-download plus cost per-review and failed appeal could cut this down dramatically.
They also don't get to push their business decisions on to devs that want access to device users.
Google decided to make the phone favor their app store, google decided to drive more users to only use and trust their app store. Google decided to use restricted apis to do this. Google decided to have google play protect trigger virus warnings on any 3rd party installed app. They made the business decision to do those things to the phone OS to disfavor 3rd party app stores, and i think the moment they did so, they stopped having a right to run the play store at a profit or even at break even, and they definitely stopped having a right to demand a cut on all of an apps profits.