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How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

arstechnica.com

21–30 of 314 posts

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#21
post #9
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

App Store, in their ios ecosystem.

Perhaps you should take a moment to review what a monopoly is.

I believe OP is referring to the recent ruling allowing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple's app store to proceed.

Not necessarily declared a monopoly yet, but also not declared not one.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/13/18617727/apple-v-pepper-a...

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#22
post #15
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's like saying McDonald's has a monopoly on what food appears on their menu. It's non-sensical as a complaint.

No, the case of Apple is more like McDonald's being able to prevent its customers from ever eating food not signed-off on by McDonald's.

How so? Apple can’t stop you from using a different phone.

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#23
This article is a good read, adding a lot of context to my understanding of the Qualcomm/Apple spat and it's merits. You can see in the history there were several potential market opportunities that companies were unable to act on due to Qualcomm's behavior.

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#24
post #20
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The monopoly is that no other software distributor can be used on iOS other than Apple.

That is a monopoly in their own product, not in a market.

Doesn't matter, Apple is the only supplier of iOS apps and forbids any competition here.

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#25
post #9
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

App Store, in their ios ecosystem.

Perhaps you should take a moment to review what a monopoly is.

I don't think things are as clear cut as you make them out to be.

Apple says nobody can run apps on their phone without handing them a 30% cut. No side-loading, no other stores, nothing. There is very obviously a market for apps that Apple controls completely. Just because there are other app stores for other phones does not mean Apple doesn't have control over the entire market for iPhone apps. Markets can be narrowly defined in anti-trust law. Apple is fleecing iPhone users for that 30%.

I don't think there's a good parallel case for this. DRM'd Keurig cups are the closest thing I could think of, but that never went to court that I know of. The case will be interesting: can you create a secondary market that you exert total control over? Can I bar anyone else from selling apps for my phone?

Personally, I don't think Apple should be able to do what they are doing and I hope they lose. It would be a win for consumer rights and free market principles.

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#27
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps you should take a moment to review what a monopoly is.

I don't think things are as clear cut as you make them out to be. Apple says nobody can run apps on their phone without handing them a 30% cut. No side-loading, no other stores, nothing. There is very obviously a market for apps that Apple controls completely. Just because there are other app stores for other phones does not mean Apple doesn't have control over the entire market for iPhone apps. Markets can be narrow…

Except that isn't what is happening. Side loading is allowed on iOS and is how Netflix is currently monetizing their iOS users.

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#28
post #15
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's like saying McDonald's has a monopoly on what food appears on their menu. It's non-sensical as a complaint.

No, the case of Apple is more like McDonald's being able to prevent its customers from ever eating food not signed-off on by McDonald's.

They can do that, if you are sitting in a McDonald’s dining room.

They can’t stop you from walking over to Burger King.

Re: How Qualcomm shook down the cell phone industry for almost 20 years

#30
post #10
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you mean Apple owns and runs an App Store, then yes, but that’s not a monopoly. It’s just a store that they control. Would you say that their physical stores are a monopoly that they abuse by not selling samsung phones?

> If you mean Apple owns and runs an App Store, then yes, but that’s not a monopoly. They also refuse to permit their customers to run apps not approved by Apple on the phones they have bought. That's the monopoly.

That’s factually false. You can side load apps, plenty of enterprises do it.
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