Aren't iTunes gift cards Apple's big constraint? They pose a more difficult problem than developers abandoning paid apps in favor of in-app purchases (which could, as you say, be solved by Apple keeping in-app purchases at 30% outside a narrow app category).
Gift card retailers get most or all of the standard 30% cut, as I understand it, leaving Apple with nothing. If that's true there's no way for Apple to withhold less than 30% without either breaking their unified payment system or losing money on each sale. Taking the loss would expose them to massive fraud from collusion between app vendors and retailers.
Charging a lower rate for some categories (like News Stand content) without risking losses from gift card arbitrage would mean creating another payment tier where gift card balances didn't work, complicating the model.
Can someone with knowledge of the situation confirm whether this is accurate?
I'd also like to see someone with knowledge weigh in. I find it unthinkable that Apple would give more than a 5-10% margin on those gift cards. Retail stores love them despite the small cut because they're pure profit on the books: there's no inventory since they have no value until sold. I think they also get favorable terms on the transfer of cash from the sale of the gift card.
This also shows where retailers can be confusing (to me): it takes labor to ship, display, and activate those cards (activation can be a huge pain) but that's all considered fixed overhead I suppose.
Unless Apple regularly sell giftcards to retailers at significant discount, there's more than 50-10% markup.
My sole means of paying for iTunes purchases is via giftcards because they can always be obtained for a discount of between 20-25% if you look. A retailer here was recently offering them at buy 2 get 1 free, or 33% discount.
Gift card retailers get most or all of the standard 30% cut, as I understand it, leaving Apple with nothing. If that's true there's no way for Apple to withhold less than 30% without either breaking their unified payment system or losing money on each sale. Taking the loss would expose them to massive fraud from collusion between app vendors and retailers.
Charging a lower rate for some categories (like News Stand content) without risking losses from gift card arbitrage would mean creating another payment tier where gift card balances didn't work, complicating the model.
Can someone with knowledge of the situation confirm whether this is accurate?