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Microsoft was also bundling. E.g. Internet Explorer. To its (very slight) credit, Apple doesn't ship the iPad with iBooks installed by default. Their control o
by roc 17y ago
Microsoft was also bundling. E.g. Internet Explorer.
To its (very slight) credit, Apple doesn't ship the iPad with iBooks installed by default.
Their control of the App Store is perhaps more-problematic (Microsoft couldn't actually stop competitors from using those undocumented APIs, once discovered). But at the same time, Apple doesn't dominate the mobile market like what Microsoft had on the desktop. (Similarly --obligatory bad-car-analogy-- auto companies exercise far more control over their dealership networks than Microsoft ever did over its resellers. But the FTC/EU took issue with Microsoft because of its monopoly status.)
Also, there's always the inconsistent treatment of game consoles to consider. The FTC has never investigated a dominant console supplier for not allowing any app from any developer onto their console. And Apple's App Store is wide open when viewed through the lens of that market.
- jkincaid 17y agoThey don't have it pre-installed, but as soon as you open the App Store for the first time you get a system alert message prompting you to download iBooks.
- tienshiao 17y agoSeems like maybe iBooks was intended to be a "first class" app but they couldn't make the schedule to make the OS image, so they decided to distribute it over iTunes.
- glhaynes 17y agoAlso, it's US-only... And perhaps they wanted to allow Kindle etc on the store without raising the controversy of why they don't block them since they duplicate built-in functionality.
- basil 17y agoAnother plausible explanation is that they can issue updates via the App Store rather than having to release an OS-level update.
- cmelbye 17y agoI would sure want the luxury of instantly pushing out a minor update to all users of the app rather than having to wait months if I was internally developing a first party app.
- keltex 17y agoAlso once Microsoft found that their undocumented APIs were in widespread use, the still continued to support them or created shims that recognized certain applications and made sure their still worked.