3 ms·

No it's not at all as monopolistic as MS was. MS was the alpha and omega of software at one point, you couldn't get around them if you wanted to sell to consume

by blub 6y ago

No it's not at all as monopolistic as MS was. MS was the alpha and omega of software at one point, you couldn't get around them if you wanted to sell to consumers or to businesses. This is not true of Apple, one can build a business and completely ignore them. Google on the other hand, good luck with that.

rvense 6y ago
> This is not true of Apple, one can build a business and completely ignore them. These days, there is a very, very large class of "potential businesses" that are only realistically realizable as smartphone apps. In my country, iPhones that can only run Apple-approved apps account for over half of the installed base for smartphones, as far as I know. Making and selling a better smart phone is not as simple as making a better hammer, and there was never such a thing as a hammer that would only work with nails approved by the manufacturer of the hammer you had. This is really a new situation with no pre-tech analogies. We cannot rely on pre-tech laws to cover it. And it's clear that consumers and small businesses are not being protected very well, if at all, from Apple. I should not be forced to be spied on by Apple or Google to park my car, but this is the situation we are in, since there aren't meters in all places in my city, only an app. A lot of supermarkets are developing their own apps for scan + pay, how long before I can pick between Apple and Google when I want to get food? There are more scenarios like this by the day, and in my mind there is no question we will need regulation to address it.
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
  > These days, there is a very, very large class of "potential businesses" that are only realistically realizable as smartphone apps. In my country, iPhones that can only run Apple-approved apps account for over half of the installed base for smartphones, as far as I know. That doesn't really follow. You've gone from "you can't sell software/hardware without Windows compatibility" to "in the Apple half of the mobile market, you can only do native apps with Apple's blessing". Apple, even in the phone space, does not have anything like the utter market dominance that Microsoft had; Android is in fact a real option. Likewise, although it is more limited, you can in fact do webapps even on an iPhone without Apple's approval.

by blub 6y ago

rvense 6y ago

> This is not true of Apple, one can build a business and completely ignore them. These days, there is a very, very large class of "potential businesses" that are only realistically realizable as smartphone apps. In my country, iPhones that can only run Apple-approved apps account for over half of the installed base for smartphones, as far as I know. Making and selling a better smart phone is not as simple as making a better hammer, and there was never such a thing as a hammer that would only work with nails approved by the manufacturer of the hammer you had. This is really a new situation with no pre-tech analogies. We cannot rely on pre-tech laws to cover it. And it's clear that consumers and small businesses are not being protected very well, if at all, from Apple. I should not be forced to be spied on by Apple or Google to park my car, but this is the situation we are in, since there aren't meters in all places in my city, only an app. A lot of supermarkets are developing their own apps for scan + pay, how long before I can pick between Apple and Google when I want to get food? There are more scenarios like this by the day, and in my mind there is no question we will need regulation to address it.

yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
> These days, there is a very, very large class of "potential businesses" that are only realistically realizable as smartphone apps. In my country, iPhones that can only run Apple-approved apps account for over half of the installed base for smartphones, as far as I know. That doesn't really follow. You've gone from "you can't sell software/hardware without Windows compatibility" to "in the Apple half of the mobile market, you can only do native apps with Apple's blessing". Apple, even in the phone space, does not have anything like the utter market dominance that Microsoft had; Android is in fact a real option. Likewise, although it is more limited, you can in fact do webapps even on an iPhone without Apple's approval.