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Apple has no monopoly in any market. Their platform terms and conditions may (or may not) be draconian, but what antitrust concerns can be taken seriously? Appl

Apple has no monopoly in any market. Their platform terms and conditions may (or may not) be draconian, but what antitrust concerns can be taken seriously? Apple owns a small (but profitable) share of every market in which they operate.

marcosdumay 12y ago
They have a total monopoly on the software market for iDevices. Even if the way they got that monopoly wasn't abusive, they are abusing it now.
- zak_mc_kracken 12y ago
  I don't think you understand anti-trust laws nor the meaning of "abusing a monopoly".
- CPLX 12y ago
  That's not what monopoly means.
humanrebar 12y ago
What about laws against abuse of vertical integration? What they're doing seems like anti-competitive use of vertical integration to me. Whether it's actually illegal is a question for a lawyer though.
dragonwriter 12y ago
> Apple has no monopoly in any market. Antitrust "monopolies" aren't monopolies in the sense of no other players, they are monopolies in the sense of practical lack of competitive pressure displayed through market power (also known as pricing power) which is the ability, within some -- potentially narrow -- range to raise prices without losing sales to competitors (hence "pricing power", but market power could perhaps also be demonstrated by being able to make other adverse changes without driving sales from the party with market power to competitors.) In a sense, this does match the "no competition" definition, in that having market power indicates that while there may be other players -- or even bigger players -- in a named market, they aren't in a practical sesne actually acting as competitors in the sense of economic theory, because the goods are revealed by market behavior not to be substitutes.
geoelectric 12y ago
Keep in mind they attracted some amount of regulatory attention via their "no third party frameworks" rule, even in the US. http://www.macrumors.com/2010/08/10/european-commission-joins-investigation-of-apples-flash-exclusion-policies/ http://www.macrumors.com/2010/08/10/european-commission-join... I agree that they're unlikely to be spanked under antitrust rules--unless they end up dominating the smart watch market, in which case they'll be very vulnerable, but they're not there yet. But even if they don't fall under those rules, they're definitely under scrutiny. Plus, Apple is definitely heading where Microsoft was: perceived as big enough to be the public's favorite piñata. That may ultimately be a bigger problem for them than any business realities.

marcosdumay 12y ago

They have a total monopoly on the software market for iDevices. Even if the way they got that monopoly wasn't abusive, they are abusing it now.

zak_mc_kracken 12y ago
I don't think you understand anti-trust laws nor the meaning of "abusing a monopoly".
CPLX 12y ago
That's not what monopoly means.

humanrebar 12y ago

What about laws against abuse of vertical integration? What they're doing seems like anti-competitive use of vertical integration to me. Whether it's actually illegal is a question for a lawyer though.

dragonwriter 12y ago

> Apple has no monopoly in any market. Antitrust "monopolies" aren't monopolies in the sense of no other players, they are monopolies in the sense of practical lack of competitive pressure displayed through market power (also known as pricing power) which is the ability, within some -- potentially narrow -- range to raise prices without losing sales to competitors (hence "pricing power", but market power could perhaps also be demonstrated by being able to make other adverse changes without driving sales from the party with market power to competitors.) In a sense, this does match the "no competition" definition, in that having market power indicates that while there may be other players -- or even bigger players -- in a named market, they aren't in a practical sesne actually acting as competitors in the sense of economic theory, because the goods are revealed by market behavior not to be substitutes.

geoelectric 12y ago

Keep in mind they attracted some amount of regulatory attention via their "no third party frameworks" rule, even in the US. http://www.macrumors.com/2010/08/10/european-commission-joins-investigation-of-apples-flash-exclusion-policies/ http://www.macrumors.com/2010/08/10/european-commission-join... I agree that they're unlikely to be spanked under antitrust rules--unless they end up dominating the smart watch market, in which case they'll be very vulnerable, but they're not there yet. But even if they don't fall under those rules, they're definitely under scrutiny. Plus, Apple is definitely heading where Microsoft was: perceived as big enough to be the public's favorite piñata. That may ultimately be a bigger problem for them than any business realities.