Sure, but you can only visit one retailer. If there was store competition let Apple charge what they like...

Google and Steam both have potential competitors and they both charge 30%

Google doesn't meaningfully have potential competitors. Alternative stores are severely limited, e.g. they can't update apps in the background.

Is that a bad thing? If I’m using an alternative to a the App Store, I definitely don’t then want an app to be able to run arbitrary code from a server.

But we have an alternate universe where users can install outside of the official store yet hardly anyone takes advantage of it.

> Is that a bad thing? If I?m using an alternative to a the App Store, I definitely don?t then want an app to be able to run arbitrary code from a server.

If you like updating manually, don't give the store you use permission to do it manually. Why are you running software you don't trust anyway!

> But we have an alternate universe where users can install outside of the official store yet hardly anyone takes advantage of it.

See the post you replied to.

That’s the beauty of the App Store. I don’t have to to trust the app maker, just the operating system.

How do you know which app makers to “trust”?

Epic?

https://www.cnet.com/news/just-as-critics-feared-fortnite-fo...

Zoom?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/zoom-defends-use-of-local-web-...

Google?

https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/15235262?hl=en

https://techcrunch.com/2019/01/30/googles-also-peddling-a-da...

The latter is just a great argument why alternatives to Google's app store shouldn't be able to do their job.

They don’t charge on top of services the way Apple does do they?

Yes Google has in app subscriptions.

Do they force you to use their in app subscriptions in the way Apple is? Can I still use my own subscriptions servcie - in fact I know the Answer because Spotify and Hey were not complaining about the Google Play Store.