First, one of the major lynchpins of the article itself is simply misleading.

The "half-trillion-dollar marketplace" quote implies that Apple is making that money from the store itself when in fact the report on which the number is based clearly states that these are estimates of sales by Apple AND by sales that occur OUTSIDE of the ecosystem.

To quote, "These other monetization strategies include selling digital goods and services outside of the App Store that can be used within apps on Apple devices (such as streaming apps), selling physical goods and services (such as grocery delivery apps), and offering ad-supported content (such as social networking apps)."

In point of fact, 80% of the "half-trillion-dollar" marketplace comes from the sale of physical goods and services sold through through apps, and not app sales themself.

Quoting again, "We estimate that the Apple App Store ecosystem facilitated more than $500 billion in billings and sales worldwide in 2019. More than 85% of that accrues solely to third parties."

Earlier this year, Apple reported that earnings it has paid to app developers who sell digital goods and services through the App Store or within their apps totaled more than $155 billion worldwide since 2008, with a quarter of those earnings paid in 2019.

One more time: Apple's third party developers have made $155 billion dollars.

Does that sound like a broken system to you?

So Apple gets 30% of app sales and just 15% of recurring subscriptions after the first year. So what do developers get from Apple's cut?

Apple reviews and validates app submissions. Apple handles all orders, merchant services, payment processing fees, customer service, returns, reserves, and downloads.

Apple provides the store, the marketplace, and access to millions upon millions of validated, credit card paying customers who can and will buy your product at the click of a button.

So what's a "fair" price for all of that?

Try getting a product into Target or WalMart or Best Buy and tell me just how much profit one of those stores is going to want to skim off the top. Closer to 50%, actually, and that's after you've actually paid to build and produce and ship them a physical product.

So again, what's fair? 20%? 15%? 10%?

Tell someone a CD costs $20 and people will whine that it's not $10. Make it $10 and someone else will whine that it's not $5 and that $10 is totally "unfair".

The problem is that pretty much ANY number you name is going to be seen as unfair by someone else who just wants more money going into their pockets and not yours.

I'm an Apple developer and I think Apple is being more than fair.

Could Apple do better? Sure. More consistency is the review process. Paid app updates. There are lot's of things that Apple could do.

But 30%? Not a problem.