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Apple already had everyone's billing information from iTunes... you could buy things just by typing in your password... That, for the first time, brought very, very easy payment to the modern software world. That, more than anything, is why there is a business for paid apps.

You need to look no further than Apple's iPhone to see how fast brilliantly written software presented on a beautifully designed device with a spectacular user interface will throw all the accepted notions about pricing, billing platforms and brand loyalty right out the window.

The distributor used to get 10, 12, 14 percent in most cases, but the App Store or Steam - they're taking 30 points. So clearly, they're viewing what they bring to the table in the digital environment to be more valuable than distribution.

I'm not sure why anybody makes a physical CD anymore when the costs are so much lower to just throw it up on iTunes. And it doesn't seem that making a hard copy of something prevents pirating any less. I mean I'm amazed that they still do that.

There are some things that are exciting for distributors. I love Apple's AppStore and the things people can do with digital distribution.

If you think about it, for any kind of content on the web, the natural price per unit of these things should be under a dollar.

Amazon doesn't want to give Apple a cut of its media sales, so Apple won't let Amazon sell products in its apps.

When the economy is difficult, people care a great deal about the things they spend their money on. Customers have come to understand that Apple's products aren't priced high - they're priced on the value of what we build into them.

Why does an iPhone cost only a couple hundred dollars? Because, as the stage performer Mike Daisey depicted in an arresting one-man show called 'The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,' Apple's shiniest products are made by a shadowy company in China called Foxconn.