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The analagous situation with convenience storea is: If any convenience store chain was able to prevent other convenience store chains from operating in a geogra
by shkkmo 6y ago
The analagous situation with convenience storea is: If any convenience store chain was able to prevent other convenience store chains from operating in a geographic area, they would have a monopoly in that area. Consumers in that market segment would have no other choice unless they were willing to sell their house and move.
In your example, a consumer can easily leave 7-11 and go to a near by store at a much, much, lower cost than selling a house.
On Android, to have choices beyond the Play Store, all I need to do is change some setting and instal a 3rd party store.
On iPhone, to have choices beyond the AppStore I might be able to run some much more complicated and dangerous software, but only when Apple is behind in the cat and mouse game with jailbreakers.
The root of the question here is one we have to answer as a society. How much should consumer choice cost (relative to the price of the good/service they are choosing). Maybe 5x is reasonable, but 500x is not.
When a company deliberately does everything they can to raise those costs and thoae costs are very high (such as with Apple), I think we should absolutely call those companies to account for anti-competive and monopolostic trade practices.
- coldtea 6y ago>The analagous situation with convenience storea is: If any convenience store chain was able to prevent other convenience store chains from operating in a geographic area, they would have a monopoly in that area This breaks down as there's no "physical area" preventing anything. You can get an Android phone whether you're in Alaska or Miami or Tanzania. In fact it's easier, and most of the billions in the planet (including high income earners) do just that.
- shkkmo 6y agoThe analogy is between the cost of moving to a new physical area and the cost of buying a new physical device.
- enos_feedler 6y agoUh, it's more like the cost of switching your preferred convenience store chain vs. your phone platform. There are alternatives and you might like one more than the other, but at the end of the day both serve the same purpose (buy milk, or computer in my pocket). If this analogy breaks down it's not because Apple has a monopoly, it's because Android ecosystem has not delivered something similar enough to 7-11.