rbarooah

11 ms·

61.
by rbarooah 15y ago
This implies that Amazon had a monopoly position. This is further illustrated by the fact that they did delist MacMillan's paper books in retribution. Without Apple providing an alternative, Amazon controlled prices within the ebook mark
62.
by rbarooah 15y ago
The app store is clearly nothing to do with any kind of monopoly, however much people would like the government to force Apple to make it what they want. However, I agree that antitrust oversight would be harmful for the Apple, and indirect
63.
by rbarooah 15y ago
If so, that seems like just as unwise strategy now as it was for Microsoft. I think it's pretty unlikely.
64.
by rbarooah 15y ago
What exactly are you comparing to an unrestrained, pre-breakup AT&T? I'm not aware of any modern equivalent.
65.
Apple Loses Bid to Restore iCloud Push Email in Germany(thenextweb.com)
2 points by rbarooah 15y ago|0 comments
66.
by rbarooah 15y ago
Ok, but that definition still renders the numbers meaningless - it's just a box you happen to see forever onwards if you've ever said yes to one of their prominent enticements to find out what Google+ is. If they told us how many Google+ me
67.
by rbarooah 15y ago
Sure, but by their definition someone who visits Google+ once and then never does anything with Google except search for the rest of time still counts as an active Google+ user. Those people simply aren't engaged in any kind of social layer
68.
by rbarooah 15y ago
He'd ask whether it would help you to get a girlfriend, or whether it would just creep her out. Based on this: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/52-steve-jobs-just-put-it-in-...
69.
by rbarooah 15y ago
Well we don't know whether there was what actually amounts to collusion, but assuming there was it might have been required to break Amazon's leverage over the bookseller which was artificially depressing prices. That wouldn't make it less
70.
by rbarooah 15y ago
I'd say it could a good thing because it facilitates price competition between actual producers, where the feedback from the market can more directly affect the quality of actual books rather than just who gets to sell them.
71.
by rbarooah 15y ago
When was the last time you saw anyone on HN directly insult someone else here in such a mean and insidious way? You wrote that edit just to try to hurt and undermine me. I think this is the first time I've seen anything like it here, and it
72.
by rbarooah 15y ago
These things are irrelevant to the definition of a monopoly.
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by rbarooah 15y ago
Being the market leader doesn't give you a monopoly in any market, and certainly not in a young and growing one.
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by rbarooah 15y ago
Isn't the agency model exactly what enables new entrants to publishing (whether publishing houses or self-publishers) to operate on a level playing field with established publishers? It seems to me to be the best thing that's happened to
75.
by rbarooah 15y ago
Accustomed to any of the countless apps and services that only exist on the iPad? Ready to do without them? Severing business or consumer relationships with anyone but a totally incompetent supplier or commodity service involves a trade-o
76.
by rbarooah 15y ago
A monopoly is more than just having the largest market share. There has to be no viable competition. With Google and Amazon in the game that's clearly untenable.
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by rbarooah 15y ago
In the days before the consumer internet, there were online services like Compuserve, Prodigy, and AOL. They did demand a cut from developers based on different features they provided. They were driven out of business through competition f
78.
by rbarooah 15y ago
You said it wasn't easy to buy an alternative, and you used switching away from Windows during Microsoft's dominance as your example. It was true that moving to the competition was hard during the Windows era because there weren't good alte
79.
by rbarooah 15y ago
A consumer could simply buy an alternative, but that is seldom as simple as it at first blush may seem. "Just use something other than Winodws" a million apologist would rant. That's why large companies get constant oversight." Except tha
80.
by rbarooah 15y ago
This blog has a strangely contradictory nature. The tagline is "Nature does not like or grant monopolies. Monopolies Fail", and yet the piece is all about how government needs to intervene.
81.
by rbarooah 15y ago
Nobody gets locked into a 2 year contract forcing them to do anything with Apple. iPads are not sold on contract. iPhones come with a contract, but the contract doesn't force you to keep using the device - just the wireless service. You ca
82.
by rbarooah 15y ago
Apple is quickly enjoying a dominant position in mobile devices that Microsoft once enjoyed with desktop computers. This can't be true while Android is the dominant mobile OS, and Amazon is the dominant eBook reader.
83.
by rbarooah 15y ago
You didn't address any of the points I made, and that's a straw man definition of ad-hominem. Ad-hominem is not specifically about tarnishing reputations, or unrelated attacks, although these can be part of it. If you look at a real defini
84.
by rbarooah 15y ago
It does look strong. I wonder what Apple is holding out for, or whether there is actually a defense.
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by rbarooah 15y ago
Thanks for clarifying. I have recently had the experiences of meeting more than one person (not super-technical engineers, but tech-literate IT people) who were very negative about even the idea of owning Apple products, but also without
86.
by rbarooah 15y ago
Right - basically the argument is that publishers cooperated with Apple to raise prices, and prices actually did go up. Which raises a red-flag of anti-competitiveness. The counterargument is that this took place at a time when prices were
87.
by rbarooah 15y ago
If they lose, it's not obvious how this would hurt Apple aside from the fine. Wouldn't they just adopt the wholesale model for books leaving the publishers high and dry? Presumably the only way Amazon was able to force the wholesale model
88.
by rbarooah 15y ago
To follow up - the OP shows that the permissions are far from clear and visible. Would people reasonably expect that the contents of their SD card and a list of all their purchases could be silently uploaded by an app they'd given no permis
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by rbarooah 15y ago
I nowhere summarily dismiss it. I say that the correlation is not exclusive to Apple owners and is just a reflection of their opinions. What I dismiss is the claim that this pattern is somehow unique to Apple users commenting on Google vs s
90.
by rbarooah 15y ago
Accepting your framing of the selling point, the OP clearly shows that it is not being delivered on.

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