Google has updated its support pages to confirm that it’s abiding by the court’s order. In the US, Play Store developers now have the option of using external payment platforms that bypass the Play Store entirely. This could hypothetically allow developers to offer lower prices, as they don’t have to pay Google’s commission, which can be up to 30 percent. Devs will also be permitted to direct users to sources for app downloads and payment methods outside the Play Store.
I think it’s possible for digital sales, as opposed to subscriptions, might become a viable business model.
Everything is in subscriptions because its possible to mitigate that 30% tax by doing bulk inventory magic and pooling resources. No customer would pay an extra 30% on every individual transaction when they feel that owning something digitally should be cheaper than owning it physically. Thats why Google Play Movies/books/whatever is like pretty much the only pay-for-digital license thing in the play store and all the other 3rd parties are left only giving out rental subscriptions. 30% is simply far too much to add onto every item.
Profit seekers want higher prices and subscriptions and IAPs. It just goes against profit models to devalue the asking price, since maximizing profits is the goal. Was best shown when Epic offered coupons covering the discount given to customers so publishers took home the same profit, but some publishers opted out because they didn’t want a price to hit below a certain threshold yet.
Same arguments were given during the transition from disc to digital for consoles too about how not having expenses for warehouses and disc production would bring down retail asking price, but to no surprise it didn’t. Companies generally don’t leave profit they can get on the table.