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I am sympathetic to this thinking but also Google and Apple make chips too, it would be perhaps hard to make a claim for why Amazon should be split without spli

I am sympathetic to this thinking but also Google and Apple make chips too, it would be perhaps hard to make a claim for why Amazon should be split without splitting Google and Apple too, but I think Apple in particular has such a good case for making their own chips that Amazon could prob use this as a defense of their own efforts. This is perhaps more a symptom of the lower cost of entry for chip fab today than we have had in the past.

anigbrowl 3y ago
I would like to see both Google and Amazon broken up. Apple I'm not sure about, they are huge and have a lot of verticals, but when you get down it they sell personal computing devices above all else and so have a stronger defense for arguing that their custom hardware is the core product. They do have a walled garden, which is a Bad Thing, but OTOH you can use their gear perfectly well without ever creating an Apple ID, and likewise you can use the whole internet perfectly well without ever purchasing an Apple device. In contrast, I have difficulty wrapping my head around the sheer scope of Google's and Amazon's enterprises, they're like entire tribes of 800lb gorillas.
- deleted 3y ago
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- andromeduck 3y ago
  Google has been building their own hardware since they started - first racks & servers then networks/data center then boarfs, semi custom cokponents and then components. Mandating that SW/Services companies be forbidden from silicon is every bit as absurd as prevention hardware manufacturers from toching software. The playing field for software is incredibly level these days - everyone uses the same IP vendors, design services & contract fabs. If you want smaller companies, reform it'll be much easier to get rid of tax pyramiding that favours mega corps.
  - anigbrowl 3y ago
    Mandating that SW/Services companies be forbidden from silicon I'm not arguing that at all. Just that they shouldn't cross so many markets at once.

anigbrowl 3y ago

I would like to see both Google and Amazon broken up. Apple I'm not sure about, they are huge and have a lot of verticals, but when you get down it they sell personal computing devices above all else and so have a stronger defense for arguing that their custom hardware is the core product. They do have a walled garden, which is a Bad Thing, but OTOH you can use their gear perfectly well without ever creating an Apple ID, and likewise you can use the whole internet perfectly well without ever purchasing an Apple device. In contrast, I have difficulty wrapping my head around the sheer scope of Google's and Amazon's enterprises, they're like entire tribes of 800lb gorillas.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
andromeduck 3y ago
Google has been building their own hardware since they started - first racks & servers then networks/data center then boarfs, semi custom cokponents and then components. Mandating that SW/Services companies be forbidden from silicon is every bit as absurd as prevention hardware manufacturers from toching software. The playing field for software is incredibly level these days - everyone uses the same IP vendors, design services & contract fabs. If you want smaller companies, reform it'll be much easier to get rid of tax pyramiding that favours mega corps.
- anigbrowl 3y ago
  Mandating that SW/Services companies be forbidden from silicon I'm not arguing that at all. Just that they shouldn't cross so many markets at once.