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It is an incredible lack of imagination that people actually think this is the end of history with regards to mobile device operating systems, and we should jus

It is an incredible lack of imagination that people actually think this is the end of history with regards to mobile device operating systems, and we should just declare Android and iOS And their ecosystems public utilities that should be regulated by the government. Because that really is the only recourse here to give people what they want. Markets aren’t created by god, they’re created by customers. If you want to force the creation of an App Store market, one that customers aren’t actually asking for, it will need to be government-mandated. Maybe there will be a weak sauce version of this where the review process isn’t regulated but the commission rates are regulated. We aren’t going back to the PC model where a thousand app stores bloom. No government will force that - there’s too much risk for malware and spyware as it is. At best it will be government-sanctioned stores with a government-sanctioned review process. Windows once had 95% market share (still does!) and this hasn’t happened, even though Microsoft still gets a cut of almost every PC sale. Be careful what you wish for. Folks here really haven’t studied history of antitrust beyond scanning Wikipedia. There is a ton potential for new devices and platforms in VR, AR, and other experiences. The current state of affairs is not permanent. Most historical antitrust actions had very limited positive effects on consumers. The Standard Oil breakup, for example, is often cited. But it’s breakup didn’t really fix anything. Its children became bigger than the parent within a few years! Same with the AT&T breakup. It led to oligopoly. The only real telecom competition has been foreign entrants like T-Mobile. Microsoft’s consent decree had almost no impact on its monopoly status and revenue steam. What mattered was the market changing, to the point we didn’t care about the Windows monopoly anymore. There were other platforms that mattered in iOS, Android. Valve has a near monopoly for PC game app stores and is poised to compete with Facebook and Apple for the next generation of VR/AR. Epic wants in on that. And likely there will be others.

Slartie 6y ago
> No government will force that - there’s too much risk for malware and spyware as it is. Since when does any government anywhere on this planet care about "risk for malware and spyware" on operating systems? If they did, they'd turn up the heat on software developers in terms of responsibility for blatant security violations and security-related software bugs. The fact that no government does any of that tells us that they don't care about secure software. Some governments - I'm not calling names now - may even have active interest in insecure software due to their law enforcement and intelligence arms depending on security flaws for their work.
- parasubvert 6y ago
  In the US alone, there have been have been several congressional hearings and FTC reports on malware and spyware over the past 20+ years. Microsoft was under significant political and commercial pressure in the 2000s to clean this up, and they answered the call.

Slartie 6y ago

> No government will force that - there’s too much risk for malware and spyware as it is. Since when does any government anywhere on this planet care about "risk for malware and spyware" on operating systems? If they did, they'd turn up the heat on software developers in terms of responsibility for blatant security violations and security-related software bugs. The fact that no government does any of that tells us that they don't care about secure software. Some governments - I'm not calling names now - may even have active interest in insecure software due to their law enforcement and intelligence arms depending on security flaws for their work.

parasubvert 6y ago
In the US alone, there have been have been several congressional hearings and FTC reports on malware and spyware over the past 20+ years. Microsoft was under significant political and commercial pressure in the 2000s to clean this up, and they answered the call.