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Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?
11–20 of 27 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?
#12The primary difference is Apple does not have a monopoly in either the smartphone or tablet markets. They only sell something like 9% of smartphones on the market.
The way out is to convince everyone who owns an iOS device to jailbreak it. And then, the development community needs to band together and convince Google, Opera, and Mozilla to port to iOS their full web browsers, including their render and JS engines, and distribute these browsers on Cydia. This would go a long way to loosening Apple's force grip on their platform and their customers.
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?
#13[deleted]
And how is that related to the question at hand? It isn't. As a matter of fact it isn't even in nearly the same industry.
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?
#14[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?
#15Because they're not a monopoly on smartphones/tablets. Android is doing pretty well, by most accounts. Blackberry still isn't dead (though not for lack of RIM's trying). The IE antitrust case against Microsoft was because they held a monopoly on desktop computers, and tried to use that to build a monopoly on Internet Browsers.
Apple a monopoly on Apple devices, but that's fine. Saying that they have a "monopoly" here is like saying that Coke has a monopoly on the contents of Coke bottles, and they should be forced to fill some with Pepsi. Perhaps less glibly, that things like XBox should be forced to ship Mario, or that Microsoft must release Halo for the PS3. Just because we're used to anything with a CPU being "free for all developers to ship whatever they like onto" doesn't make it a right enforceable by law. If that's your preference, great - buy devices that support this. We do not want the government dictating policy in an area so young, and highly competitive.
If, in a few years, the iPad has become the tablet computer with 99% of the marketshare, there might be an argument for an antitrust case against App Store policies. But that looks very unlikely to be the case.
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?
#16iOS is not in a dominant position in the smartphone market. Android is bigger. iOS is rather dominant in the tablet market, but the market is arguably too nascent to be concerned yet - there's no reason to believe that Android tablets won't eventually become popular.
Fundamentally, monopoly regulation (like that which affected microsoft) is for monopolies. I really dislike Apple's lock-down-heavy policies, but as long as there are credible alternatives out there there's little reason to be concerned.
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?
#17There are multiple alternate browser choices for iOS devices. Apple distributes Chrome and Opera for iOS through the app store. Mozilla has chosen to not support iOS.
No, they are all forced to render using Apple's Webkit, there might be a different skin on top, but the underlying technology is STRICTLY no-touchy. Its a monopoly of the worst kind.
If Apple was the dominant OS for all portable devices manufactured by everyone then I would agree. However, Apple only controls the OS for devices they produce. I don't see that as a monopoly of the worst kind.
If you go into any non-Apple electronics store you can buy many devices which don't use iOS. When everyone made the big stink about Microsoft's monopoly it was almost impossible to buy a computer without Windows installed from any major retailer or manufacturer.
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?
#18i can't understand any part of your argument that would be legally supportable that wouldn't make every single kind of embedded system illegal. consoles? right out. dumbphones? illegal. gps? nope. atms? gotta be hackable. mp3 players? can't.
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?
#19When the antitrust/monopoly ruling came down from on high Microsoft held something like 90% of the home computer market. That's a dominant position. Apple maintains a solid percentage of phones, and the tablet market is too small to notice.
There's no loophole, Apple is small enough in percentages and there's that much more choice that they can't be classed as a monopoly. Don't like it? Don't buy the product. The issue was with Windows there was only one game in town for the vast majority.
Re: Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?
#20I think the key here is that phones were for a long time "embeded devices". It is protected platform that can not be 'tinkered' with. This was how iPhone 1.0 was. That is point one to ponder.
Point two: Original intent of sales. iPhones and Android and other phones are sold as a smart phone. As long as it is not sold as a computer, the vendors are free to dictate what is possible and what is not.
NB: While Android does has third party browsers, it should be noted that the default Browser.app can not be recreated using the Android SDK as it relies on private APIs.