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Apple actually annexed the open podcasting community with the podcast section of its iTunes store. They also managed to become a near-monopoly in the MP3 player
by dingle_thunk 16y ago
Apple actually annexed the open podcasting community with the podcast section of its iTunes store. They also managed to become a near-monopoly in the MP3 player market.
- cookiecaper 16y agoThere have always been lots of non-Apple MP3 players. They never had a monopoly or anything close. A majority market share, presuming Apple even had one which is not a forgone conclusion, is not the same thing as a monopoly. It was not a "near-monopoly", whatever that means.
- kenjackson 16y agoThere have always been a lot of operating systems besides Windows too. Lots of browsers besides IE. It's not choice that is the question, it's influence. For example, if Apple blocked Ford from being able to hook up iPods/iPhones to their cars would that be a problem? I think so.
- cookiecaper 16y agoSeriously? Who buys cars based on their MP3 player hookup? It's a nice feature but it's certainly not something that's going to "be a problem" for Ford, at least not in my opinion. Whether Apple could realistically block Ford from providing that functionality is iffy anyway. Apple does not and did not have a monopoly or near-monopoly on any market. There's a difference between having influence and power and controlling a monopoly. Apple is powerful in a few markets now, namely phones and portable music players, but that's not the same thing as a monopoly. Other music players existed, prospered, and their developers retained influence and power in the market as well.
- kenjackson 16y agoLet me give another example then, where the company being discriminated has more at stake. What if Apple said that artists from the MCA label couldn't play on their MP3 players. Now all of a sudden you have a music label that is being blocked from being played on the most dominant MP3 player in the world. Apple, with its monopoly power, could not effectively control which labels flourish and which don't. Of course, they don't do such a thing, and it would be near impossible to implement, but the example shows their strength. And it doesn't matter that other players existed and prospered (although I'd argue that none prospered before the iPod). It's simply a question of market power at this point in time, not 10 years ago. It would be like MS arguing that the Commodore OS used to be the desktop operating system (when the C64 reigned supreme).
- todd3834 16y agoAll analogies fall apart somewhere, however, I believe the point was very easy to understand with that one.
- dingle_thunk 16y agoWe aren't talking about selling cars. People buy MP3 players based on their car's MP3 player hookup...
- chc 16y agoBy that logic, no monopoly has ever existed anywhere. Even the biggest, baddest monopolies don't hit 100% saturation. There are always other entries, just none that have any hope of competing with the monopoly.
- chc 16y agoInteresting. For all the downvotes, there has not been a single refutation. I think I've hit on something that some people just don't want to hear.