Apple's 30% is a tax on the consumer, not the app publisher. The tax is always on the person whose wallet was opened. Apple and the publisher are beneficiaries. The publisher will make money off these sales or not stay in business. Its the consumer that will ultimately lose choice and quality. Apple's business model is not Microsoft, its Wal-Mart. And like Wal-Mart, companies will respond to Apple's predatory behavior by filling the shelves with inferior product.
If you haven't shopped at Target recently, go check out something as simple as Hanes undershirts at Target and then the seemingly similar Hanes product at Wal-mart. There is a marked difference in quality as this is the only way suppliers can make money off sales to Wal-mart. Of course, software follows very different rules of scale than textiles. We may expect to see product differentiation such as "MyApp for Android" having more R&D into it than "MyApp for iOS". Its hard to say how this differentiation will take place, its new territory.
If you haven't shopped at Target recently, go check out something as simple as Hanes undershirts at Target and then the seemingly similar Hanes product at Wal-mart. There is a marked difference in quality as this is the only way suppliers can make money off sales to Wal-mart. Of course, software follows very different rules of scale than textiles. We may expect to see product differentiation such as "MyApp for Android" having more R&D into it than "MyApp for iOS". Its hard to say how this differentiation will take place, its new territory.