4 ms·

Uneducated answer: it's a natural monopoly. There are economies of scale and any new entrant won't get monopoly profits to justify the required capital and risk

by acover 5y ago

Uneducated answer: it's a natural monopoly. There are economies of scale and any new entrant won't get monopoly profits to justify the required capital and risk. Why couldn't anyone compete against Bell by building a second phone network?

arcticbull 5y ago
Apple isn't anywhere close to a monopoly, though, about a quarter of smartphones. A little more in install base, and a little less in quarterly shipments. [1] Building a phone network has massive capital expenditure costs on infrastructure, building a phone does not. [1] https://financesonline.com/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/ https://financesonline.com/number-of-smartphone-users-worldw...
- aaomidi 5y ago
  > building a phone does not. Companies have a limited output of the materials needed to make a computer. If Apple tells one of these companies you now have an exclusive relationship with us, or else, what is that company going to do? Anyway, Apple has a monopoly of platform, which is measured between its own base, rather than as an absolute number compared of what % devices are iPhones.
- bduerst 5y ago
  That's market shifting though. Apple does have a monopoly on the markets running on all their devices, from apps to media, for ~900 million phones. When Apple doesn't completely own the only available market service to it's hardware (that it exclusively gives itself), it still charges a 30% fee to it's competitors for access to it's markets while actively blocking everyone else.
- bmarquez 5y ago
  The same article you mentioned says that 56% of US/Canada users and 70% of Japanese users have iPhones. I'd argue that monopolies should be judged on country and not worldwide. As each country has different iMessage popularity, apps restricted by region, earning power, phone availability, etc.
- urthor 5y ago
  Apple's primary moat isn't hardware, it's software. Their software moat with IOS is everything. Software itself is innately a hugely monopolistic industry.
  - nezgar 5y ago
    *iOS IOS is Cisco's router OS. Apple did license it though, to prevent any potential lawsuit...
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago
  The judge in the Epic case said that Apple though not a monopoly was acting like one and might be on the way to becoming one. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/06/house-antitrust-subcommittee-apple-has-monopoly-power.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/06/house-antitrust-subcommittee... https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/eff-appeals-apples-monopoly-doesnt-make-users-safer https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/eff-appeals-apples-mon... So sure. Not a monopoly. But also not far from a monopoly as you claim.

by acover 5y ago

arcticbull 5y ago

Apple isn't anywhere close to a monopoly, though, about a quarter of smartphones. A little more in install base, and a little less in quarterly shipments. [1] Building a phone network has massive capital expenditure costs on infrastructure, building a phone does not. [1] https://financesonline.com/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/ https://financesonline.com/number-of-smartphone-users-worldw...

aaomidi 5y ago
> building a phone does not. Companies have a limited output of the materials needed to make a computer. If Apple tells one of these companies you now have an exclusive relationship with us, or else, what is that company going to do? Anyway, Apple has a monopoly of platform, which is measured between its own base, rather than as an absolute number compared of what % devices are iPhones.
bduerst 5y ago
That's market shifting though. Apple does have a monopoly on the markets running on all their devices, from apps to media, for ~900 million phones. When Apple doesn't completely own the only available market service to it's hardware (that it exclusively gives itself), it still charges a 30% fee to it's competitors for access to it's markets while actively blocking everyone else.
bmarquez 5y ago
The same article you mentioned says that 56% of US/Canada users and 70% of Japanese users have iPhones. I'd argue that monopolies should be judged on country and not worldwide. As each country has different iMessage popularity, apps restricted by region, earning power, phone availability, etc.
urthor 5y ago
Apple's primary moat isn't hardware, it's software. Their software moat with IOS is everything. Software itself is innately a hugely monopolistic industry.
- nezgar 5y ago
  *iOS IOS is Cisco's router OS. Apple did license it though, to prevent any potential lawsuit...
2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago
The judge in the Epic case said that Apple though not a monopoly was acting like one and might be on the way to becoming one. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/06/house-antitrust-subcommittee-apple-has-monopoly-power.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/06/house-antitrust-subcommittee... https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/eff-appeals-apples-monopoly-doesnt-make-users-safer https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/02/eff-appeals-apples-mon... So sure. Not a monopoly. But also not far from a monopoly as you claim.