Apple is Holding Back the Creator Economy

Even so, it is highly improbable that Apple will do much more to be friendlier to platforms and creators unless the government forces them to. Why? They have a great business. Apple has a hardware monopoly over a specific set of consumers, and they’ve leveraged that into a monopoly on payments conducted on those devices.

No other major platform—including the Mac—forces the same limitations on payment infrastructure that Apple does: imagine the hue and cry if Google Chrome were to only allow payments using Google Pay.

This was acceptable in 2008, when the number of mobile apps was small. But now the App Store is not one small outpost for developers and creators to make a living. It is an unavoidable, ubiquitous forum for commerce. This new reality requires Apple to behave less like a product company and more like a platform: a neutral party that allows a wide di... See more

Steve Jobs’ original vision for the App Store was a curated, hand picked selection of apps that ran seamlessly on iPhones—giving users a smooth and secure experience. This was necessary at the beginning.

Restrictive, inconsistent norms on what kinds of apps are allowed in the store

-Too much intermediation of the relationship between buyers and sellers

-Their $999 price cap on IAP

-Their 30% take rate on IAP

-Requiring all payments for digital content to use Apple’s in-app purchase system (IAP)