3 ms·
I'm not a state or regulatory body, but it's obvious to me that Google in fact bundles their services along with their OS and makes alternative apps or services
by niftich 10y ago
I'm not a state or regulatory body, but it's obvious to me that Google in fact bundles their services along with their OS and makes alternative apps or services (like, say, the Google Play Store vs alternate app stores) awkward in some cases.
One can argue that realities of the implementation like trust, bootstrapping, having a minimum viable product, key exchange, etc. make it difficult to do it any other way, and in most cases, that argument is fair. But Microsoft famously got hit about both IE and Windows Media Player, so intuitively I feel either they're both in the right, or both in the wrong.
What's remarkable to me is how Apple has been able to escape such suits to date, as they're far more vertically integrated. Regardless of the jurisdiction and their particular propensity for monopoly-busting or protectionism, cases like this leave me the cynicism that as it's not really the behavior that's being regulated, but rather individual targets are in the crosshairs.
- ocdtrekkie 10y agoThe key reason Apple is basically never affected by this, is Apple is putting Apple software on Apple hardware. The tying issue that comes into play for both Microsoft and Google revolves around the arrangement between the software developer and the hardware manufacturer. Since Apple is both, this is a non-issue. But when Google is forcing Samsung to do things or Microsoft is forcing Dell to do things, it's a different ballgame.
- paulryanrogers 10y agoYet if Apple becomes a significant majority in a given market then I imagine anti trust would be a concern
- on_and_off 10y ago>Since Apple is both, this is a non-issue. I would argue that it is kind of an issue for consumers and third party developers when you can't install/publish apps without Apple's approval. If you consider that an iDevice is like a game console, this is fine, if you consider it like a generic computer, this is a big limitation.