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I think it’s absurd that you can neither buy a kindle book from the iOS kindle app nor the Amazon app. How user unfriendly! And yet, Apple runs their own digi
by projektfu 6y ago
I think it’s absurd that you can neither buy a kindle book from the iOS kindle app nor the Amazon app. How user unfriendly!
And yet, Apple runs their own digitsl bookstore... since there’s no way to remove 30% revenue from apple’s own venture, they’re using a monopoly position to monopolize another market.
Oh, but Apple isn’t a monopoly because there’s Android.
Why did we think Microsoft was a monopoly? You could always buy a Mac and avoid the MS tax. But in the end the courts decided that MS was a monopoly unfairly restraining trade. We’ll have to see how this turns out. But by not allowing other app stores, Apple has put themselves at risk here.
- notriddle 6y agoWindows still has 87% market share on desktop and laptop web browsing statistics. It was higher at the time that trial took place, and cell phone web browsing wasn't as popular back then. iOS still has less than half of the smartphone market. p.s. Right to Repair laws ought to make it illegal for Apple to prevent users from installing third-party software on the iPhone. This talk of them being some sort of "monopoly" is totally irrelevant.
- projektfu 6y agoThese arguments feel empty to me. There is only one source of software for the iPhone: Apple. The android ecosystem has no utility to the iPhone user. There is an Apple tax on every piece of software and every digital purchase on the platform. I don’t see where the competition is.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Wohlf 6y agoYes, and when Microsoft was found to be abusing their monopoly position, they faced antitrust suit and lost. Epic thinks the same is now true of Apple. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Cor....
- nodamage 6y agoThe key difference is that Microsoft had 90% market share in the operating system market. Apple's 46% market share in the smartphone market is not likely enough to be considered holding "monopoly power".
- gerash 6y agoI don't think we need to stick to an existing law and second guess what courts think. We need new legislation that lowers the cost of switching across popular platforms down to a single click of a button. That'll solve a big chunk of the problem
- wmeredith 6y ago> Why did we think Microsoft was a monopoly? They had 94% market share in 1990's. They actually invested in Apple to keep them from going under.
- nosslin 6y agoSounds like OP thought Apple had the same market share back then as today.
- projektfu 6y agoI was asking rhetorically, because the counterpoint is the existence of competition. Are you any less locked into a platform that has 90% market share as opposed to one that has 50%? What matters is the degree of lock in, not total market share. By the definition of 100% market share, Microsoft wasn’t a monopoly, and they argued this in court. They argued that Netscape was on a level playing field because, like AOL, they could carpet bomb the country with install disks, while MS could include their browser on 90+% of new computers sold.
- sah2ed 6y ago> I think it’s absurd that you can neither buy a kindle book from the iOS kindle app nor the Amazon app. How user unfriendly! You can still buy Kindle books on iOS using Mobile Safari so there is that.
- projektfu 6y agoBut the apps can’t refer you there.