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I think you misunderstand why monopolies are regulated. There is AMPLE computing choice today. There is even healthy choice available in mobile alone. Monopol
by ubermonkey 4y ago
I think you misunderstand why monopolies are regulated.
There is AMPLE computing choice today. There is even healthy choice available in mobile alone.
Monopoly regulation is about preventing those with market-controlling power from exploiting that position in unfair ways to the detriment of consumer choice. Microsoft did this when they tried to destroy Netscape by bundling a browser with Windows. There really WASN'T another viable desktop system at the time, and mobile didn't really exist; they owned the market.
Apple is free to improve their offerings in any way they see fit. They are even free to incorporate features into their systems that began life as products from other vendors; this is the normal way of things. If you don't like how Apple is behaving, you are free to shift your desktop to Linux or Windows or ChromeOS, or to migrate to mobile devices running ChromeOS or Android. That's a functioning market.
There's nothing sneaky about openly continuing to improve one's offerings.
HN is really, really bad about ascribing dark motives to every tech company not on the Approved List (which, of course, is constantly changing). Apple is pretty smart. Adding encryption to their backup scheme is one of those scenarios where yes, it's good business, but it's also the right move for customers.
- oblio 4y ago> There is AMPLE computing choice today. There is even healthy choice available in mobile alone. No, there isn't. If I want to be a functional human being, not some dork, it's either: 1. iOS (not jailbroken). 2. Android (not rooted). Everything else is a FOSS hippie pipe dream, to be blunt. And in economics there aren't just monopolies. There are also oligopolies and cartels. We will need new laws for software ecosystems, if anyone will be bold enough to write them (they won't, see lobbying).