But I argue there is no market failure here. You can distribute the app via web or Android. iOS just one of the options that you are free to boycott if you find the fee unreasonable. The fact that vast number of developers don't (although they have a choice) proves my case.
> the price for iOS distribution is not determined by market forces because there is no competition for it.
Perhaps you misunderstood. The price for iOS distribution is determined by Apple; whether that price is a good value is determined by market forces. Again, it seems that it is indeed a great deal, because vast (and silent majority) of developers accept it.
> It's like if there were two delivery services in the US, each covering one part of the country.
But it is not. You can reach your user via Web or if they are mobile via Android or Windows phone. Apple can not be blamed if your user prefers to use iPhone (despite it being most expensive) and now you have 30% cost of distribution to reach them. That is exactly type of an outcome a free market would produce. The freedom here is expressed in your user's ability to pick their mobile device and by no stretch of imagination Apple has a monopoly there.
>The price for iOS distribution is determined by Apple; whether that price is a good value is determined by market forces. Again, it seems that it is indeed a great deal, because vast (and silent majority) of developers accept it.
The famous monopoly cases (e.g. Standard oil or Bell system) also had tons of customers, that's what happens when demand is rather inelastic. If you want to say that artificially inflated prices due to e.g. a monopoly can still be a good deal because people are still willing to buy it, then we shouldn't be content with just good deals because they still cause harm to society overall by not being pareto efficient. Apple can't charge the rate they do purely by the strength of their distribution service - it's the device base that is the real value and only by anti-competitive measures can they keep the price up.
>But it is not. You can reach your user via Web or if they are mobile via Android or Windows phone.
What if Apple also decided that every transaction made through their browser had to give them a cut? The situation doesn't fundamentally change (you could still just offer your app to android/desktop users), but I think it's pretty clear that this would be anti-competitive. They might not have a monopoly on smartphones/devices, but they have such a large share that boycotting them isn't really an option.
Users are also currently funneled into apps due to how web is limited in functionality as determined by Apple. e.g. if your app needs long term local storage you now need an 'real' app because Apple changed it so that web app local storage gets cleared on the regular. Windows phone has also been dead for years now.
> If you want to say that artificially inflated prices due to e.g. a monopoly
Perhaps you misread, but I am saying opposite of both. I am saying that both Apple's prices are not high, proven by number of people agreeing to pay them in a market where other options to distribute an app exist, and that Apple does not have a monopoly.
> What if Apple also decided that every transaction made through their browser had to give them a cut... but I think it's pretty clear that this would be anti-competitive.
It is not pretty clear? There are plenty other options on the market in terms of a browser.
> They might not have a monopoly on smartphones/devices, but they have such a large share that boycotting them isn't really an option.
At least we can agree that Apple does not have a monopoly. Everything else is market forces at play. My argument was that the price set by Apple for distribution is such that it is acceptable to majority of developers. If Apple set an unreasonable price instead, say 70% cut, I am sure that a lot of developers would simply not develop for iOS, nor would iOS achieve same reach it has. Thus we can only conclude that Apple carefully picked a price which is both acceptable by vast number of people and maximizes Apple's revenue at the same time. This is free market at its finest.
> the price for iOS distribution is not determined by market forces because there is no competition for it.
Perhaps you misunderstood. The price for iOS distribution is determined by Apple; whether that price is a good value is determined by market forces. Again, it seems that it is indeed a great deal, because vast (and silent majority) of developers accept it.
> It's like if there were two delivery services in the US, each covering one part of the country.
But it is not. You can reach your user via Web or if they are mobile via Android or Windows phone. Apple can not be blamed if your user prefers to use iPhone (despite it being most expensive) and now you have 30% cost of distribution to reach them. That is exactly type of an outcome a free market would produce. The freedom here is expressed in your user's ability to pick their mobile device and by no stretch of imagination Apple has a monopoly there.