I understand that, what I'm saying is that Apple asking you to pay for access to developer tools that are otherwise already freely distributed seems fishy. There's almost certainly a slew of developers that have paid up to Apple without guarantee that any of their applications will actually make it - because they either don't pass quality control or provide functionality already available on the native OS (regardless if the 3rd party tool is any better). It might be fine for consumers, but wouldn't it be cheaper for the customers to go directly to the software developer? Theoretically yes, but that's not allowed. You'd have to jailbreak the iPhone to do that, which voids your warranty.
The point I'm making is that it is not only cheaper for customer and the developer to buy directly from the vendor, but it should be like that anyway because developers have probably paid the $400 or so for an iPhone. They shouldn't have to spend a single cent on development tools that are already offered free of charge from the same company. They should be able to release their applications WITHOUT going through Apple - sure, you can pay to go through Apple if you want, but what I'm saying is that you should have the choice to sell software directly to the customer. It's just about their profits and revenue; the only things large conglomerates care about, which is why a developer gains little advantage from going through Apple to sell iPhone software.
