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Obviously Ma Bell makes lots of money from their telephone system. What's wrong with that? There are limits to everything. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaku

Obviously Ma Bell makes lots of money from their telephone system. What's wrong with that? There are limits to everything. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_the_Bell_System unfocussed_mike's point is that Apple has obfuscated App Store P&L for years to try to keep regulators from feeling obligated to step in. There's no other obvious explanation for why they would keep it secret from both investors and the courts, and "the purpose of a system is what it does."

unfocussed_mike 5y ago
Way more precisely put than I managed, thank you.
Grustaf 5y ago
Why would it even be an issue that they're making billions from the app store? They've clearly said many times "this year have helped developers earn x billions through the appstore". Then it's easy to calculate their cut. But making money is not illegal. The app store is only a monopoly on iOS, not on phones or computers in general. I think it will be very hard to make that case.
- coder543 5y ago
  > They've clearly said many times "this year have helped developers earn x billions through the appstore". Then it's easy to calculate their cut. But making money is not illegal. No... it's easy to calculate their revenue, but it's not easy to calculate how much profit they made versus how much it cost them to operate the App Store. Pure revenue is largely irrelevant, from what I understand. As you say, making money isn't illegal, it's just the sign of a successful business. > The app store is only a monopoly on iOS, not on phones or computers in general. I think it will be very hard to make that case. I completely agree, under the way the laws were written decades ago. A lot of powerful people have been moving to update the way monopolies are understood for the digital era, and to remove Apple's monopoly over iOS. In the US, I can point to various examples of this, but these two will do for the current discussion: https://9to5mac.com/2020/10/06/app-store-gives-apple-monopoly-power-over-ios-apps-us-house-antitrust-report-says/ https://9to5mac.com/2020/10/06/app-store-gives-apple-monopol... https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/03/senate-committee-advances-open-app-markets-act.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/03/senate-committee-advances-op... Whether these attempts succeed or not is difficult to say, given how strongly Apple lobbies on their own behalf. Knowing exactly what the P&L look like for the App Store would make it easier for Apple's opponents to make the case that Apple is misusing their position to take advantage of large numbers of people and businesses within the US due to a lack of competition for iOS users, which might make their government representatives push harder on the issue. That's the political reality as I see it in the US. I could be off base, but there has been lots of discussion about Apple and their App Store again lately.

unfocussed_mike 5y ago

Way more precisely put than I managed, thank you.

Grustaf 5y ago

Why would it even be an issue that they're making billions from the app store? They've clearly said many times "this year have helped developers earn x billions through the appstore". Then it's easy to calculate their cut. But making money is not illegal. The app store is only a monopoly on iOS, not on phones or computers in general. I think it will be very hard to make that case.

coder543 5y ago
> They've clearly said many times "this year have helped developers earn x billions through the appstore". Then it's easy to calculate their cut. But making money is not illegal. No... it's easy to calculate their revenue, but it's not easy to calculate how much profit they made versus how much it cost them to operate the App Store. Pure revenue is largely irrelevant, from what I understand. As you say, making money isn't illegal, it's just the sign of a successful business. > The app store is only a monopoly on iOS, not on phones or computers in general. I think it will be very hard to make that case. I completely agree, under the way the laws were written decades ago. A lot of powerful people have been moving to update the way monopolies are understood for the digital era, and to remove Apple's monopoly over iOS. In the US, I can point to various examples of this, but these two will do for the current discussion: https://9to5mac.com/2020/10/06/app-store-gives-apple-monopoly-power-over-ios-apps-us-house-antitrust-report-says/ https://9to5mac.com/2020/10/06/app-store-gives-apple-monopol... https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/03/senate-committee-advances-open-app-markets-act.html https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/03/senate-committee-advances-op... Whether these attempts succeed or not is difficult to say, given how strongly Apple lobbies on their own behalf. Knowing exactly what the P&L look like for the App Store would make it easier for Apple's opponents to make the case that Apple is misusing their position to take advantage of large numbers of people and businesses within the US due to a lack of competition for iOS users, which might make their government representatives push harder on the issue. That's the political reality as I see it in the US. I could be off base, but there has been lots of discussion about Apple and their App Store again lately.