Zeke Weeks

Zeke Weeks

Web Developer & Consultant


  • Blazing Wheel (My company)
  • GitHub
  • LinkedIn
  • Drupal.org
  • ContactMy preferred methods of interaction with the general public are through my Twitter or Google+ accounts. I love talking with folks in the tech community, brainstorming, debating, the works, and that’s where the conversation is richest. My instant messaging (Google Talk/AIM/MSN/Skype) and email addresses are made available on a need-to-know basis, and may be requested through the above public channels. At home, I’m in the Mountain Time Zone, and observe Daylight Savings Time. (Click here to see the local time.) If you need to reach me privately, you can do so through this form, which goes directly to my personal email account. Please respectfully consider that this form often contacts me while I’m with loved ones or getting some R & R; I cannot guarantee a response to every message.


Apple’s Advocate Explains the Grab for 30%

Like many, I reacted very negatively to Apple’s new policy: any paid content inside iOS apps be available through Apple’s subscription system, must be available at the lowest price, and must give Apple a 30% cut of that price.

John Gruber has written a very thorough analysis of the popular arguments against this new policy, and attempts to divine Apple’s reasoning for implementing it:

Apple doesn’t give a damn about companies with business models that can’t afford a 70/30 split. Apple’s running a competitive business; competition is cold and hard. And who exactly can’t afford a 70/30 split? Middlemen. It’s not that Apple is opposed to middlemen — it’s that Apple wants to be the middleman. It’s difficult to expect them to be sympathetic to the plights of other middlemen…

This is what galls some: Apple is doing this because they can, and no other company is in a position to do it. This is not a fear that in-app subscriptions will fail because Apple’s 30 percent slice is too high, but rather that in-app subscriptions will succeed despite Apple’s (in their minds) egregious profiteering. I.e. that charging what the market will bear is somehow unscrupulous. To the charge that Apple Inc. is a for-profit corporation run by staunch capitalists, I say, “Duh”.

Gruber has scored a direct hit on Apple’s strategy, and his explanation makes it seem very solid for Apple, its customers, and content creators. The biggest losers are Apple’s competitor middle-men. I think Apple’s main interest is being the best damned middle man in the business. The only problem is that some of those middle-men make products I really like, and Apple will only play ball with them if Apple gets to make the rules.

Daring Fireball: Dirty Percent

March 1, 2011
Apple, business, economics, iOS, linkedin
business, Technophilia

Get new posts by email

Website Powered by WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Zeke Weeks
    • Join 437 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Zeke Weeks
    • Edit Site
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar