Who sells phone apps in a retail store?
It’s retail software. . . And software is sold retail. Standard normal retail software markups would apply if the publishers had to sell their products through normal product channels of jobbers, salesmen, wholesalers, etc., with their overheads, commissions and commiserate costs. Use your head. I’ve been there, done that. Even if the publishers do it themselves they’d have to have their own online marketing and advertising trying to reach 1.2 billion iOS users, maintain a website, payment, bookkeeping, delivery, updating, and customer service systems and be prepared to expand to meet demand beyond anticipation if their app goes viral. I assure you those costs would come to greater than 30% of their retail costs. . . But what do you do if you publish a free app? Those have no 30% commission. 60% of all apps are free.
Apple sells as an agent for the publisher, they do not buy the software at wholesale and mark it up, but charge a flat 30% of the retail price set by the publisher. That covers marketing, online store, credit card costs, delivery, online presentation, rating system, feedback, customer service, automatic updating to millions of users, etc. That’s a bargain.