Apple’s App Store has reasonable commission rates that are roughly comparable to other online services, significantly cheaper than traditional offline retail, and are generally in line with commissions at art auctions, consignment shops, and car dealerships. At least, according to a new report written for Apple by hired competition and antitrust experts.
Two things the report doesn’t mention?
Only the two biggest elephants in the App Store room.
The recent Basecamp email app fiasco plus numerous antitrust investigations have put Apple’s App Store pricing and commissions front and center. Apple, already having commissioned independent research highlighting the non-Apple revenues associated with iOS devices, just added another report to the don’t-sue-us-we’re-good campaign.