Quote:
Originally Posted by Sil_liS
It's 30% of what is sold through the app. And the problem is that with books the retailer (now called agent) gets 30%. If they give 30% to Apple they don't make any money, while they still have costs.
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I won't dispute that this is the consequence of the situation. I didn't call it out explicitly. But what Kobo/Sony/Amazon see themselves as are retailers with nobody else in the chain after them.
It used to be that this was the situation: Publisher -> Distributor -> Retailer
With digital content the distributor goes away, so you get a mix of price changes, and the distributor's cut being split between the publisher and retailer. Or a piece of that cut winds up in Adobe's pocket for their DRM solution/etc.
With Apple in the mix as host/retailer of the app, you get a weird scenario like this: Publisher -> Retailer (Kobo/Sony/Amazon/B&N) -> Retailer (Apple). This isn't exactly a sane arrangement, considering the sort of cuts that Kobo and the like get. Retailers as middlemen make for poor business.
Most devs only see: Developer -> Retailer (Apple). Which is sane.
If every publisher had their own app, it would be: Publisher -> Retailer (Apple/Google/Microsoft/etc). But they'd cut out the book retailers in the process, including Amazon, plus fracture the market a bit. Just look at Viz, Marvel and Dark Horse all with their own apps, different ways to read their comics, and so on.
Apple's cut makes sense if we consider Apple an app retailer trying to deal with loopholes that would prevent them from being able to get their take. Does it really make sense that "Where To?" sales should pay for Amazon's Kindle app hosting (the paid apps subsidize the truly free apps)?
Honestly, if a developer would be allowed to provide an ipa on their own hosting and eschew the app store entirely, this would be a moot point and things would be fine. As it stands, your options are to sell through another retailer, or use HTML5. I don't agree with Apple's decision, but I can understand it. And I think Kobo's decision is the right one in the face of the situation, as trying to become a distributor in a market where publishers and retailers can talk directly is not a smart move in the long-run.