The old news that Apple gave Amazon a better rate than others on the AppStore commission fee is all over the news again. Somehow the journalists seem to think that this a bullet in the heart of the argument that Apple tries to put everyone on a level playing field. They have it all wrong.
Apple offers a volume discount. So does just about everyone else in the world. There’s nothing preferential about this. Most companies are even up front about what kind of volume your company needs to be at, to get a certain price break. Any company that can clear that hurdle, gets the discount.
When I was working at Gateway Computers, one of the things that used to really chafe Ted Waitt’s hide was the fact that Dell and HP used to get better pricing than we did on components. Gateway paid more for hard drives and memory sticks because we just didn’t buy in the larger volumes that Dell or HP did.
Gateway didn’t cry out to the government to “level the playing field”. Gateway didn’t accuse Western Digital of giving Dell special treatment. Everyone at Gateway knew that we paid higher component prices because we didn’t have the same leverage as Dell. End of story.
As I’ve written before, Apple’s AppStore has been great because it brought a whole new class of people to the business world. New entrepreneurs are creating things and making a business for themselves. But the flip side of that is this. Apple is now in business with a whole lot of people who don’t really understand the business world.
Apple giving breaks to Netflix or Amazon is standard operating procedure in business. Your biggest customers always get special rates. If you want a special rate too, grow your own business to the point where you now have leverage over Apple and you will get your own volume discount. You have equal opportunity the same as everybody else.
When I was working at Gateway Computers, one of the things that used to really chafe Ted Waitt’s hide was the fact that Dell and HP used to get better pricing than we did on components. Gateway paid more for hard drives and memory sticks because we just didn’t buy in the larger volumes that Dell or HP did.
Gateway didn’t cry out to the government to “level the playing field”. Gateway didn’t accuse Western Digital of giving Dell special treatment. Everyone at Gateway knew that we paid higher component prices because we didn’t have the same leverage as Dell. End of story.
As I’ve written before, Apple’s AppStore has been great because it brought a whole new class of people to the business world. New entrepreneurs are creating things and making a business for themselves. But the flip side of that is this. Apple is now in business with a whole lot of people who don’t really understand the business world.
Apple giving breaks to Netflix or Amazon is standard operating procedure in business. Your biggest customers always get special rates. If you want a special rate too, grow your own business to the point where you now have leverage over Apple and you will get your own volume discount. You have equal opportunity the same as everybody else.
RSS Feed