10 ms·
Great move. This will increase local competition and wages, diversify ideas and design, and make shareholders more money than as a single entity. As with Standa
by maxwell 4y ago
Great move. This will increase local competition and wages, diversify ideas and design, and make shareholders more money than as a single entity. As with Standard Oil and AT&T. The U.S. should continue investigating splitting up Alphabet, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.
- quonn 4y agoHow would you split Apple? How would you split Meta (would you start charging for WhatsApp)?
- soperj 4y agoWhatsApp used to charge, but really what they'd do is just charge facebook & whoever else for the data they're sharing.
- robopsychology 4y agoDid they actually charge though? I remember hearing about that but it's been my sole method of messaging for years and I never remember setting up payments with them
- quonn 4y agoI think they charged 1 Euro when you bought the app. I doubt that covers the costs to keep it running.
- bioemerl 4y agoApple into hardware and software. Microsoft into OS and other software and cloud. Amazon into cloud and web store(s). Google into ads and web software that serves ads.
- quonn 4y agoIt doesn't make sense to split Apple into hardware and software since the integration and simplicity that comes from it is the very thing that makes Apple unique.
- nindalf 4y agoYou asked for ideas. You never specified that they should be workable or logical.
- listenallyall 4y agoApple licensed it's MacOS back in the mid-90s to third-party hardware manufacturers. If it was forced to by the government, I imagine it could do so again.
- seanmcdirmid 4y agoIt wasn’t forced to by the government. The CEO at the time thought it was a good idea.
- listenallyall 4y agoYes, we know. Please read my comment, it doesn't claim or imply Apple was under any government pressure back then.
- bioemerl 4y agoUnfortunately this is also the source of all their monopolistic behavior. Apple hardware should be incentivized to make great hardware for any operating system. Apple software should be incentivized to sell to many manufacturers and also to not obey apple hardware's demands for locks to prevent things like the replacement of batteries. Their union could be a great thing, but apple decided to use it to be a bunch of monopolists, so your break them up like all the others.
- izacus 4y agoApple Hardware, Apple Licensed OSes, Apple Online Services, Apple Financial Services (apple card & apple pay & co), Apple News Services, Apple Mapping Services. Think of everything that Apple (Meta, Google) do, think on which components would benefit from having startups replace and distrupt them and then break them up on those seams while forcing them to allow competition between their fragments (e.g. iPhone with Android OS, iOS on Microsoft phone platform, MacBook M1 with ARM Windows, iOS iPhone with Google Pay, etc. etc.).
- bufferoverflow 4y agoWhich of them will own apple.com? Which of them will own Apple trademark? Which of them will own Apple logo?
- toyg 4y agoTrivialities that antitrust regulations already cover. It would not be the first time a company has been broken up.
- bufferoverflow 4y agoYou didn't answer the question.
- toyg 4y agoI don't have to: I'm not a judge specialized in antitrust law and I don't have access to Apple's books to determine what would be more appropriate. But a judge can, and will (if asked to), because - as I said - it's hardly an unprecedented situation. Just to mention one, AT&T still exists as a brand but was once broken up.
- izacus 4y agoWe can compromise and say "none" :P
- the_mitsuhiko 4y ago
- true_religion 4y agoWhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Oculus all used to be separate companies. They can easily become so again.
- maxwell 4y agoI probably wouldn't break up Apple myself, but would require lifting the ban on other web browser engines and app stores on all operating systems. For Alphabet and Meta, I would likely pursue criminal charges for conspiracy to fix prices in online ad auctions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_Blue
- georgeecollins 4y agoHow to split Meta: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp. Easy! Hard part: Who gets Occulus?
- aembleton 4y agoOcculus can be its own company
- bilbo0s 4y agoThis is our problem as techies, we throw out this stuff with very little idea of the legal framework in place around antitrust. Even smaller ideas around precedent and the legal reasoning behind those precedents. I know everyone doesn't want to go to law school, but we have to at least understand that we can't go into a court and make stuff up. Who can reasonably be broken up? On what reasonable basis? Well, Perhaps Meta? Maybe Microsoft? Alphabet definitely. Apple? They'll laugh us out of court. If we want these changes, we're going to have to advocate for changes in the fundamental ideas behind antitrust itself. Technology has outstripped the current regulatory environment's ability to keep it in order. And we don't seem to want to admit that. We just keep crying that the law won't act. Well, that's because no laws are being broken. And the politicians and the tech bigs are desperate to ensure that no one figures that out. They'll keep feeding us crumbs so that we don't do the dangerous thing and ask for changes in law.
- fumblebee 4y agoHonest question: why was this downvoted? To me it seems totally reasonable that: > The U.S. should continue investigating splitting up Alphabet, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft.
- duxup 4y agoTo me the comment isn’t relevant. It’s not clear China’s government actions are “really” for the purposes as that comment indicates… And frankly the list of companies is borderline nonsensical.
- wincy 4y agoI disagree, and think it would be harmful. I think we’d be better off splitting up the US government into smaller pieces but everyone loses their mind when I suggest it.
- ipaddr 4y agoLike states or regions or cities? You are not the first to have this idea. It was a founding principle for the US
- throwayyy479087 4y agoAgreed, and local power tends to be much more responsive and accountable than the Feds. It's one of the best parts of the system (the Senate is the worst imo)
- Spivak 4y agoBecause without also limiting the size and power of private entities you're just arguing for corporatism with extra steps. If you force government to be smaller and less powerful than corporations then corporations become government.
- FpUser 4y agoThe US government is already split. You want country ran by companies? As much as I do not like politicians I think companies running the country would do much worse.
- a-user-you-like 4y agoThe traditional definition of a monopoly is the government issuing a grant for a business to operate exclusively. These ought not to be allowed. If there is no subsidy or special grant, it’s not a monopoly. Often these days there are subsidies or unfair grants given in some way, and the solution is to eliminate the subsidy or grant.
- kevinwang 4y agoNever heard this before. Source?
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoRoyal endorsements are a monopoly on services to the crown.
- eunos 4y agoIronically isnt that this move just make Alibaba governance just follow Alphabet model?
- re-thc 4y agoNo it won't. It will reduce competition. Are you going to now compete with the official government supported entity?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- deeviant 4y agoAnd this, is how tankies are born.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ShaurAsar 4y agoSome believe that breaking up these companies would promote healthy competition, while others argue it could harm innovation and limit consumer choice. It is up to policymakers and regulators to carefully consider the potential benefits and drawbacks before making any decisions.