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I mean I think of those four, Apple is the only one currently even close to the top of their game and it's likely because they're the one company on God's green

I mean I think of those four, Apple is the only one currently even close to the top of their game and it's likely because they're the one company on God's green earth that actually makes good margins on mass consumer hardware due to their brand. Google and Meta were at their product peaks somewhere much closer to their "2 guys in a garage with 128MB of ram" stage than their current "enormous adtech behemoth" stage. And it's my impression that much of what happens in innovation at both companies is primarily just fiddling with knobs on the adtech products to see if you can get 0.001% more money out of it, with some predatory copying of up-and-coming potential competitors apps to try to kill them and then a tiny bit of halfhearted actual innovation (quickly abandoned when it doesn't become the next ads in terms of revenue). Look at all the products Google has launched, and then killed because it didn't compete with ads so they didn't care? Literally dozens of medium-sized businesses worth, and they leave behind a scarred market because incumbents likely got smashed when Google released their product. I'm just saying - I think you would be surprised at how fast a google-shaped or meta-shaped hole would be filled. Especially since Google search is an entire screenful of ads before actual search results at this point.

xadhominemx 3y ago
You are talking about Android, google search, gmail, iOS, instagram, WhatsApp, amazon, windows, and TikTok.
- atomicnumber3 3y ago
  Android started as an independent company outside of Google and was acquired later because it was succeeding. Gmail competes primarily on having highly deliverable email due to its massive adoption. This is part of the problem of email in general, and not necessarily a good thing about gmail. iOS - see android. Heck even Ubuntu has a phone OS, or did? There would be competitors here. WhatsApp has a million competitors. We're not talking about amazon or windows afaik? But Amazon is mainly competitive because it is a giant logistics network which isn't tech related and afaik not really something the EU generally takes issue with. Windows is already dying (it has ads in its start menu!!) and has had competitors for ages, both Linux and Mac. TikTok is notable primarily because it's good at addicting users which I think is something the EU would again be fine to lose.
- kyriakos 3y ago
  You don't need one company to do all that. On the contrary it makes it easier for companies to abuse their position when they own all the cards (e.g. why does Android need to be made by the same company that runs the largest search engine?)

xadhominemx 3y ago

You are talking about Android, google search, gmail, iOS, instagram, WhatsApp, amazon, windows, and TikTok.

atomicnumber3 3y ago
Android started as an independent company outside of Google and was acquired later because it was succeeding. Gmail competes primarily on having highly deliverable email due to its massive adoption. This is part of the problem of email in general, and not necessarily a good thing about gmail. iOS - see android. Heck even Ubuntu has a phone OS, or did? There would be competitors here. WhatsApp has a million competitors. We're not talking about amazon or windows afaik? But Amazon is mainly competitive because it is a giant logistics network which isn't tech related and afaik not really something the EU generally takes issue with. Windows is already dying (it has ads in its start menu!!) and has had competitors for ages, both Linux and Mac. TikTok is notable primarily because it's good at addicting users which I think is something the EU would again be fine to lose.
kyriakos 3y ago
You don't need one company to do all that. On the contrary it makes it easier for companies to abuse their position when they own all the cards (e.g. why does Android need to be made by the same company that runs the largest search engine?)