"I have to give them a 30% cut if I want to sell software for their hardware."
Right, if you build something and Target puts it in their store you think they don't take a cut or doesn't take it out of the store if it crosses taste lines? Is that "sharecropping in the retail world"? Sorry no, that is just how business works.
Lady Gaga didn't become a big hit because she is the most talented artist and pressed her own CDs and kept 100% of the profits. She became a big hit because she signed a deal that gave 10% of her profits to her agent who got her another deal where she signed away another 70%+ of income to a company that got her the best beatmakers in the world and put her songs on the radio every hour.
Analogously, Apple has put a store together that brings tens of millions of paying customers right to your app's doorstep and makes it super easy for them to buy it. The deal they're offering is that they take 30% to cover expenses (customer service, servers, etc.) and as a finder's fee. If you don't like that deal you're free to say no but plenty of other people have said yes. Very few big software houses develop for Android but not iOS and very few develop apps for Android before iOS despite the market share disparity. Clearly they see Apple's deal as a lucrative investment and not sharecropping.
Right, if you build something and Target puts it in their store you think they don't take a cut or doesn't take it out of the store if it crosses taste lines? Is that "sharecropping in the retail world"? Sorry no, that is just how business works.
Lady Gaga didn't become a big hit because she is the most talented artist and pressed her own CDs and kept 100% of the profits. She became a big hit because she signed a deal that gave 10% of her profits to her agent who got her another deal where she signed away another 70%+ of income to a company that got her the best beatmakers in the world and put her songs on the radio every hour.
Analogously, Apple has put a store together that brings tens of millions of paying customers right to your app's doorstep and makes it super easy for them to buy it. The deal they're offering is that they take 30% to cover expenses (customer service, servers, etc.) and as a finder's fee. If you don't like that deal you're free to say no but plenty of other people have said yes. Very few big software houses develop for Android but not iOS and very few develop apps for Android before iOS despite the market share disparity. Clearly they see Apple's deal as a lucrative investment and not sharecropping.