4 ms·

FTC requests Facebook to sell WhatsApp and Instagram

73 points by pouwerkerk 5y ago

intricatedetail 5y ago
That's a right thing to do. It should follow Apple to be required to sell App Store, iOS and macOS. Google should be required to sell Ad Sense, YouTube and gmail and so on. This concentration of power is bad for everyone except shareholders.
- mandeepj 5y ago
  > Apple to be required to sell App Store, iOS and macOS Not going to happen. Do you want them to build only hardware?
  - FractalHQ 5y ago
    Yea, I agree with the Google bit but this part made me think GP is being sarcastic…. Those 3 elements are part of the same Ecosystem and in a way, the same product. Amazon and Microsoft own WAY more tangentially related companies than Apple, and are constantly gobbling up more and more.
  - summm 5y ago
    Yes. Why not? They should make hardware and publish the specs. Of course. That is very unlikely due to the power they already have.
    - xxpor 5y ago
      This only makes sense if you completely misunderstand the value of Apple as a company. You're asking for the death of Apple and it's entire ecosystem, not for an anti-trust solution.
      - wizzwizz4 5y ago
        There's no reason iOS needs to be the only game in town. Why can't Apple Computers and Apple Operating Systems be different companies?
        tekknik 5y ago
        As the person you’re replying to said, this only makes sense if you don’t understand what Apple is providing. They are selling an experience, not hardware. Innovation on one or the other in this hypothetical of two Apples means it’s available to all other market participants which means they’re paying for others research. Then writing software becomes harder as you have to support everything under the sun and have difficulty deprecating things like MS does with windows. You have to check for individual hardware instead of writing for a platform. This argument is basically “what is the value of a platform?”
        wizzwizz4 5y ago
        > Innovation on one or the other in this hypothetical of two Apples means it’s available to all other market participants which means they’re paying for others research. They're already “paying for others' research”, because you're allowed to copy what Apple does. > Then writing software becomes harder as you have to support everything under the sun Whoever said they can't still write for a platform? It can be the responsibility of other iPhone manufacturers to make to-spec iPhones.
        tekknik 5y ago
        > They're already “paying for others' research”, because you're allowed to copy what Apple does. Patents cover anything innovative. > Whoever said they can't still write for a platform? It can be the responsibility of other iPhone manufacturers to make to-spec iPhones. and this works well currently with android and other platforms (cough palm). on android tv can i stream wirelessly to my headphones with zero lag? on chromebooks can i sync a bluetooth mouse and it show up on my other chromebooks? You cannot have 2 companies and still have tight integration.
thedudeabides5 5y ago
But then how will we build metaverse?
ChrisArchitect 5y ago
[dupe] discussion brewing over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28235555 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28235555

73 points by pouwerkerk 5y ago

That's a right thing to do. It should follow Apple to be required to sell App Store, iOS and macOS. Google should be required to sell Ad Sense, YouTube and gmail and so on. This concentration of power is bad for everyone except shareholders.

mandeepj 5y ago
> Apple to be required to sell App Store, iOS and macOS Not going to happen. Do you want them to build only hardware?
- FractalHQ 5y ago
  Yea, I agree with the Google bit but this part made me think GP is being sarcastic…. Those 3 elements are part of the same Ecosystem and in a way, the same product. Amazon and Microsoft own WAY more tangentially related companies than Apple, and are constantly gobbling up more and more.
- summm 5y ago
  Yes. Why not? They should make hardware and publish the specs. Of course. That is very unlikely due to the power they already have.
  - xxpor 5y ago
    This only makes sense if you completely misunderstand the value of Apple as a company. You're asking for the death of Apple and it's entire ecosystem, not for an anti-trust solution.
    - wizzwizz4 5y ago
      There's no reason iOS needs to be the only game in town. Why can't Apple Computers and Apple Operating Systems be different companies?
      - tekknik 5y ago
        As the person you’re replying to said, this only makes sense if you don’t understand what Apple is providing. They are selling an experience, not hardware. Innovation on one or the other in this hypothetical of two Apples means it’s available to all other market participants which means they’re paying for others research. Then writing software becomes harder as you have to support everything under the sun and have difficulty deprecating things like MS does with windows. You have to check for individual hardware instead of writing for a platform. This argument is basically “what is the value of a platform?”
        wizzwizz4 5y ago
        > Innovation on one or the other in this hypothetical of two Apples means it’s available to all other market participants which means they’re paying for others research. They're already “paying for others' research”, because you're allowed to copy what Apple does. > Then writing software becomes harder as you have to support everything under the sun Whoever said they can't still write for a platform? It can be the responsibility of other iPhone manufacturers to make to-spec iPhones.
        tekknik 5y ago
        > They're already “paying for others' research”, because you're allowed to copy what Apple does. Patents cover anything innovative. > Whoever said they can't still write for a platform? It can be the responsibility of other iPhone manufacturers to make to-spec iPhones. and this works well currently with android and other platforms (cough palm). on android tv can i stream wirelessly to my headphones with zero lag? on chromebooks can i sync a bluetooth mouse and it show up on my other chromebooks? You cannot have 2 companies and still have tight integration.

thedudeabides5 5y ago

But then how will we build metaverse?

ChrisArchitect 5y ago

[dupe] discussion brewing over here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28235555 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28235555