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> If a single company was putting up toll booths on every intersection Again, Apple is not the only company in this space and iOS is not the only intersection/

> If a single company was putting up toll booths on every intersection Again, Apple is not the only company in this space and iOS is not the only intersection/road/whatever analogy you want. There are alternatives and companies like Epic are absolutely free to start their own platform. Honestly, all of this becomes much less complicated if you think of the iPhone as an Xbox, PlayStation or Switch. iPhone is not the entire mobile industry, it is one phone among hundreds. Will you move for a forced break up of their exclusive stores too if MS/Sony/Nintendo started allowing general-purpose apps on those consoles? (They already have YouTube, Netflix, etc.) iPads on the other hand may be a different story, given how Apple likes to market them as general purpose computers, and the reason why they forked iOS into iPadOS I think.

matsemann 6y ago
> and companies like Epic are absolutely free to start their own platform. But in practice, are anyone capable of that? It's a winner-takes-it-all, and the winners are so huge it's virtually impossible for anyone to upset them. You cannot compete on price, features or anything without a hundred billion investment.
- colejohnson66 6y ago
  Barrier to entry isn’t necessarily part of antitrust. I can’t set up my own toll roads without billions of dollars of investment, but a toll road company isn’t necessarily breaking the law.
- Razengan 6y ago
  > But in practice, are anyone capable of that? See Samsung and all their proprietary crap on Android, including their own alternative to the Play Store, for one. Epic already have their own store and want to weasel it into iOS, whether the majority of users want it or not. Instead of losing money [0] on this whole mess they could have just made their own phone or handheld by now. [0] https://www.macrumors.com/2020/09/05/epic-injuction-fortnite-reinstatement/ https://www.macrumors.com/2020/09/05/epic-injuction-fortnite...
grumple 6y ago
This isn’t about the iPhone, it’s about iOS, which is one os out of two. And they have an absolute monopoly within iOS and on iPhones, while creating a market which can and will be regulated and being a publicly traded company and therefore subject to even more scrutiny and laws. And people care a lot less about the consoles because they are a lot less important to the economy. This is like McDonalds complaining about paying fair wages and pointing to a two-location mom and pop shop and saying “but they do it too!”. Classic whataboutism.
- scarface74 6y ago
  Most people don’t care about side loading apps on their phone either...
  - kinkrtyavimoodh 6y ago
    Good, then Apple shouldn't be worried that the nicely manicured lawns they offer their users would be trampled upon.
    - scarface74 6y ago
      Just the opposite, if you care so much about sideloading, then why buy an iOS device? Do you often buy products that don’t meet your needs or desires?
      - kinkrtyavimoodh 6y ago
        I personally couldn't care less because I don't have an iPhone but users can't realistically choose a device based on the cross product of all the features they want. There are always compromises. Some of these problems have outsized impacts, such as the way Apple extorts money from its App Store, which isn't a place most App developers can simply choose not to be on, any more than they can simply choose not to live in a country.
        Razengan 6y ago

matsemann 6y ago

> and companies like Epic are absolutely free to start their own platform. But in practice, are anyone capable of that? It's a winner-takes-it-all, and the winners are so huge it's virtually impossible for anyone to upset them. You cannot compete on price, features or anything without a hundred billion investment.

colejohnson66 6y ago
Barrier to entry isn’t necessarily part of antitrust. I can’t set up my own toll roads without billions of dollars of investment, but a toll road company isn’t necessarily breaking the law.
Razengan 6y ago
> But in practice, are anyone capable of that? See Samsung and all their proprietary crap on Android, including their own alternative to the Play Store, for one. Epic already have their own store and want to weasel it into iOS, whether the majority of users want it or not. Instead of losing money [0] on this whole mess they could have just made their own phone or handheld by now. [0] https://www.macrumors.com/2020/09/05/epic-injuction-fortnite-reinstatement/ https://www.macrumors.com/2020/09/05/epic-injuction-fortnite...

grumple 6y ago

This isn’t about the iPhone, it’s about iOS, which is one os out of two. And they have an absolute monopoly within iOS and on iPhones, while creating a market which can and will be regulated and being a publicly traded company and therefore subject to even more scrutiny and laws. And people care a lot less about the consoles because they are a lot less important to the economy. This is like McDonalds complaining about paying fair wages and pointing to a two-location mom and pop shop and saying “but they do it too!”. Classic whataboutism.

scarface74 6y ago
Most people don’t care about side loading apps on their phone either...
- kinkrtyavimoodh 6y ago
  Good, then Apple shouldn't be worried that the nicely manicured lawns they offer their users would be trampled upon.
  - scarface74 6y ago
    Just the opposite, if you care so much about sideloading, then why buy an iOS device? Do you often buy products that don’t meet your needs or desires?
    - kinkrtyavimoodh 6y ago
      I personally couldn't care less because I don't have an iPhone but users can't realistically choose a device based on the cross product of all the features they want. There are always compromises. Some of these problems have outsized impacts, such as the way Apple extorts money from its App Store, which isn't a place most App developers can simply choose not to be on, any more than they can simply choose not to live in a country.
      - Razengan 6y ago