> I think Apple should either charge considerably less than they do for distribution via their App Stores (that is, even less than 15%) or allow competition.
There's no "or" there. They need competition. The fact they were able to quickly halve their fee due to public sentiment and some lawmakers sniffing around means that competition was not working to even that out to costs plus some profit already. I would posit the reason is because there is no real competition because Apple's behavior and control of their platform (from hardware to customer transactions) is extremely anti-competitive. Monopoly or not, anti-competitive behavior that harms consumers is the problem, and the fact they could drop fees so easily and quickly and by an arbitrary amount (half) points towards harm to developers and by extension consumers due to inflated fees because of lack of competition.
There's no "or" there. They need competition. The fact they were able to quickly halve their fee due to public sentiment and some lawmakers sniffing around means that competition was not working to even that out to costs plus some profit already. I would posit the reason is because there is no real competition because Apple's behavior and control of their platform (from hardware to customer transactions) is extremely anti-competitive. Monopoly or not, anti-competitive behavior that harms consumers is the problem, and the fact they could drop fees so easily and quickly and by an arbitrary amount (half) points towards harm to developers and by extension consumers due to inflated fees because of lack of competition.