4 ms·

I don’t really see what’s not okay? My credit card company doesn’t send me offers from other companies alongside theirs, even though the networks are a duopoly.

I don’t really see what’s not okay? My credit card company doesn’t send me offers from other companies alongside theirs, even though the networks are a duopoly. When I pull up to McDonald’s they don’t ask me if I’d like to order sides from Burger King instead. Not seeing how consumers were harmed.

throwaway2037 3y ago
Umm... please review the Microsoft anti-trust cases from late 1990s & early 2000s with US and EU. At the height of MS Windows, Microsoft could crush any competitor by including a poor substitute for any software with their OS. Eventually, this was ruled multiple times as anti-competitive.
- jonhohle 3y ago
  You’re missing the primary reason: they controlled pricing. What price could other operating systems makers charge in the late 90s, early 2000s? It didn’t matter, Microsoft had forced OEMs to only sell PCs with Windows or not be able to sell Windows per-installs at all. If Apple said to Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile that they could only sell iPhones if they only sold iPhones and _then_ used that position to bundle other services they would look like Microsoft. I could see potentially on the supply side (buying all of TMSCs most cutting edge capacity) Apple has that power, but on the consumer side they have no price control in any market (Apple products are not a market).
  - rezonant 3y ago
    This is conflating two issues identified with Microsoft's practices during this time. Both of which got them in trouble. Microsoft abused it's dominant position in the PC OS market to (A) lock out competition in the OS market and (B) gain footholds in other markets and extinguish competition (such as for the web browser market). It's a strained argument to say that if they hadn't have put the OEM agreements in place that they would've been completely unchecked by the antitrust authorities in the browser market.
- joshuaturner 3y ago
  Apple has not reached the market share in any category that Microsoft had at its peak with Windows
jorvi 3y ago
Say there are only two places in the world that you can get groceries (apps): MegaMarket and Grocery King. Alongside that, these supermarkets offer amenities like shopping carts to make your visit more comfortable. One of the amenities that MegaMarket offers is a water cooler (music app). Then, one day, they decide to change the water cooler into a house brand coffee machine (music streaming) that has the water tap function stuffed away on its back. All the other coffee brands are in the back of the store in a rack, all next to eachother. Meanwhile, MegaMarket’s coffee is front and center right as you walk into the store. And a bunch of people who’s store route never took them to the back of the store now also try coffee and get used to buying it each month. See how that horribly disadvantages the singular coffee brands? And none of them have the capital needed to start their own supermarket. And even if they did, their new grocery platform could never build enough marketshare before MegaMarket coffee entrenches itself in the coffee market.

throwaway2037 3y ago

Umm... please review the Microsoft anti-trust cases from late 1990s & early 2000s with US and EU. At the height of MS Windows, Microsoft could crush any competitor by including a poor substitute for any software with their OS. Eventually, this was ruled multiple times as anti-competitive.

jonhohle 3y ago
You’re missing the primary reason: they controlled pricing. What price could other operating systems makers charge in the late 90s, early 2000s? It didn’t matter, Microsoft had forced OEMs to only sell PCs with Windows or not be able to sell Windows per-installs at all. If Apple said to Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile that they could only sell iPhones if they only sold iPhones and _then_ used that position to bundle other services they would look like Microsoft. I could see potentially on the supply side (buying all of TMSCs most cutting edge capacity) Apple has that power, but on the consumer side they have no price control in any market (Apple products are not a market).
- rezonant 3y ago
  This is conflating two issues identified with Microsoft's practices during this time. Both of which got them in trouble. Microsoft abused it's dominant position in the PC OS market to (A) lock out competition in the OS market and (B) gain footholds in other markets and extinguish competition (such as for the web browser market). It's a strained argument to say that if they hadn't have put the OEM agreements in place that they would've been completely unchecked by the antitrust authorities in the browser market.
joshuaturner 3y ago
Apple has not reached the market share in any category that Microsoft had at its peak with Windows

jorvi 3y ago

Say there are only two places in the world that you can get groceries (apps): MegaMarket and Grocery King. Alongside that, these supermarkets offer amenities like shopping carts to make your visit more comfortable. One of the amenities that MegaMarket offers is a water cooler (music app). Then, one day, they decide to change the water cooler into a house brand coffee machine (music streaming) that has the water tap function stuffed away on its back. All the other coffee brands are in the back of the store in a rack, all next to eachother. Meanwhile, MegaMarket’s coffee is front and center right as you walk into the store. And a bunch of people who’s store route never took them to the back of the store now also try coffee and get used to buying it each month. See how that horribly disadvantages the singular coffee brands? And none of them have the capital needed to start their own supermarket. And even if they did, their new grocery platform could never build enough marketshare before MegaMarket coffee entrenches itself in the coffee market.