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Vertical integration/monopolism is part of it too. The money machine feeds everything else. They sell very high end hardware for uses that are beyond the needs

by tootie 3y ago

Vertical integration/monopolism is part of it too. The money machine feeds everything else. They sell very high end hardware for uses that are beyond the needs of 99% of their market. I literally had a dream the other night that I still had my android phone from 5 years ago because it had an IR blaster I could use to control my TV. That's probably the last time a phone from any maker had a distinguishing feature worth paying for.

scarface_74 3y ago
Yes, Apple with 10% of the PC market and 50% of phone market in the US is a “monopoly” > That's probably the last time a phone from any maker had a distinguishing feature worth paying for. Yet people by new phones every year. Every TV to a first approximation is a smart TV where you can control everything with an app.
- tootie 3y ago
  Apple has the entire top of the market. The amount of money transacted on iOS is probably 90% of the mobile market. Been that way at every company I've ever worked for. They mandate use of their app store, take a cut of app purchases, in-app purchases, require you build and develop on their workstations and pay a fee to install software on your own phone. They have a long history of monopolism or attempted monopolism when it comes to things like music, podcast and ebooks as well. They have >60% of the podcast listening audience as well.
  - scarface_74 3y ago
    Their podcast app accepts a url to any podcast feed anywhere on the web. Apple never stores the actual audio like Spotify and Google. They’ve also had a documented API that doesn’t require any API key to their podcast directory that other podcast apps can and do use since 2005. As far as music, when the music industry wanted Apple to license its DRM to other players, Jobs posted “Thoughts on Music” to the front page of Apple.com where he tried to convince the record labels to license all music DRM free to all of the sellers. Apple never had a monopoly on ebooks and was sued for letting the book sellers set their own prices. The amount transacted on mobile is closer to 60/40 in Apple’s favor.

by tootie 3y ago

scarface_74 3y ago

Yes, Apple with 10% of the PC market and 50% of phone market in the US is a “monopoly” > That's probably the last time a phone from any maker had a distinguishing feature worth paying for. Yet people by new phones every year. Every TV to a first approximation is a smart TV where you can control everything with an app.

tootie 3y ago
Apple has the entire top of the market. The amount of money transacted on iOS is probably 90% of the mobile market. Been that way at every company I've ever worked for. They mandate use of their app store, take a cut of app purchases, in-app purchases, require you build and develop on their workstations and pay a fee to install software on your own phone. They have a long history of monopolism or attempted monopolism when it comes to things like music, podcast and ebooks as well. They have >60% of the podcast listening audience as well.
- scarface_74 3y ago
  Their podcast app accepts a url to any podcast feed anywhere on the web. Apple never stores the actual audio like Spotify and Google. They’ve also had a documented API that doesn’t require any API key to their podcast directory that other podcast apps can and do use since 2005. As far as music, when the music industry wanted Apple to license its DRM to other players, Jobs posted “Thoughts on Music” to the front page of Apple.com where he tried to convince the record labels to license all music DRM free to all of the sellers. Apple never had a monopoly on ebooks and was sued for letting the book sellers set their own prices. The amount transacted on mobile is closer to 60/40 in Apple’s favor.