Japanese game publisher Digital Will has filed a lawsuit against Apple
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Re: Japanese game publisher Digital Will has filed a lawsuit against Apple
#2A sad developer treatment, and a sorry-ass state for a platform, but not related to antitrust law, much less a "textbook antitrust case".
For starters, Apple is not a monopoly. You are not a monopoly on your own platform, especially if that platform doesn't even have the majority of the relevant market. A company makes a platform or product so that they dictate the terms and if it's a marketplace, what and how it accepts to sell in it.
Re: Japanese game publisher Digital Will has filed a lawsuit against Apple
#3A sad developer treatment, and a sorry-ass state for a platform, but not related to antitrust law, much less a "textbook antitrust case". For starters, Apple is not a monopoly. You are not a monopoly on your own platform, especially if that platform doesn't even have the majority of the relevant market. A company makes a platform or product so that they dictate the terms and if it's a marketplace, what and how it acc…
Antitrust isn't limited to only monopolies. That is just the most easily discussed violation, no?
For example, you are not a monopoly on your own platform, but working with anyone to raise the prices on another platform is illegal under this framework, as well.
Re: Japanese game publisher Digital Will has filed a lawsuit against Apple
#4A sad developer treatment, and a sorry-ass state for a platform, but not related to antitrust law, much less a "textbook antitrust case". For starters, Apple is not a monopoly. You are not a monopoly on your own platform, especially if that platform doesn't even have the majority of the relevant market. A company makes a platform or product so that they dictate the terms and if it's a marketplace, what and how it acc…
> You are not a monopoly on your own platform, especially if that platform doesn't even have the majority of the relevant market.
iPhone has a market share of almost 70% in Japan, the location of the plaintiff. iPhone also has a market share of over 50% now in the United States, by the way.
> A company makes a platform or product so that they dictate the terms and if it's a marketplace, what and how it accepts to sell in it.
Historical revisionism. For more than 30 years prior to iOS, general-purpose computing platforms were mostly open with no vendor-controlled store.
Re: Japanese game publisher Digital Will has filed a lawsuit against Apple
#5A sad developer treatment, and a sorry-ass state for a platform, but not related to antitrust law, much less a "textbook antitrust case". For starters, Apple is not a monopoly. You are not a monopoly on your own platform, especially if that platform doesn't even have the majority of the relevant market. A company makes a platform or product so that they dictate the terms and if it's a marketplace, what and how it acc…
Antitrust isn't limited to only monopolies. That is just the most easily discussed violation, no? For example, you are not a monopoly on your own platform, but working with anyone to raise the prices on another platform is illegal under this framework, as well.
>For example, you are not a monopoly on your own platform, but working with anyone to raise the prices on another platform is illegal under this framework, as well.
That's when the players the work with form a "cartel". And even there it's not an antitrust case until we're talking about a majority of combined share. Else two or more two-bit players deciding to sell at the same price is not a cartel (nor a trust). If Panic and BareBones meet and decide to sell their editors for $100, it's nobody's concern.
Re: Japanese game publisher Digital Will has filed a lawsuit against Apple
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
Antitrust isn't limited to only monopolies. That is just the most easily discussed violation, no? For example, you are not a monopoly on your own platform, but working with anyone to raise the prices on another platform is illegal under this framework, as well.
> For example, you are not a monopoly on your own platform, but working with anyone to raise the prices on another platform is illegal under this framework, as well. That's when the players the work with form a "cartel". And even there it's not an antitrust case until we're talking about a majority of combined share. Else two or more two-bit players deciding to sell at the same price is not a cartel (nor a trust). If…
I picked that example because Apple has already lost in that scenario before. :D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Apple_Inc.
There is also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L..., so Apple hasn't exactly been free of antitrust legislation in the past...
Re: Japanese game publisher Digital Will has filed a lawsuit against Apple
#7A sad developer treatment, and a sorry-ass state for a platform, but not related to antitrust law, much less a "textbook antitrust case". For starters, Apple is not a monopoly. You are not a monopoly on your own platform, especially if that platform doesn't even have the majority of the relevant market. A company makes a platform or product so that they dictate the terms and if it's a marketplace, what and how it acc…
> You are not a monopoly on your own platform, especially if that platform doesn't even have the majority of the relevant market. iPhone has a market share of almost 70% in Japan, the location of the plaintiff. iPhone also has a market share of over 50% now in the United States, by the way. > A company makes a platform or product so that they dictate the terms and if it's a marketplace, what and how it accepts to sel…
>Historical revisionism. For more than 30 years prior to iOS, general-purpose computing platforms were mostly open with no vendor-controlled store.
That's quite the historical revisionism.
Phones weren't "general-purpose computing platforms" for the most part of those 30 years (Gordon Gecko's phone didn't have apps). Nor where they considered as such.
And there were tons of capable of "general purpose computing" popular devices in those 30 years with closed markets or even restricted acccess to the SDKs themselves, almost all game consoles for example.
Re: Japanese game publisher Digital Will has filed a lawsuit against Apple
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You are not a monopoly on your own platform, especially if that platform doesn't even have the majority of the relevant market. iPhone has a market share of almost 70% in Japan, the location of the plaintiff. iPhone also has a market share of over 50% now in the United States, by the way. > A company makes a platform or product so that they dictate the terms and if it's a marketplace, what and how it accepts to sel…
> Historical revisionism. For more than 30 years prior to iOS, general-purpose computing platforms were mostly open with no vendor-controlled store. That's quite the historical revisionism. Phones weren't "general-purpose computing platforms" for the most part of those 30 years (Gordon Gecko's phone didn't have apps). Nor where they considered as such. And there were tons of capable of "general purpose computing" pop…
> Phones weren't "general-purpose computing platforms" for the most part of those 30 years (Gordon Gecko's phone didn't have apps). Nor where they considered as such.
We're all well aware of that, but so what? There's nothing inherent to smartphones that requires vendor-locked stores, and indeed some other smartphone platforms allow various levels of so-called "sideloading".
> And there were tons of capable of "general purpose computing" popular devices in those 30 years with closed markets or even restricted acccess to the SDKs themselves, almost all game consoles for example.
I used the term "general-purpose computing platforms" specifically to contrast with platforms such as game consoles, which are by their very name single-purpose.
By the way, I don't accept that vendor lockdown of game consoles is ok either, especially at present. My understanding is that the original motivation was that game consoles were sold at a loss to encourage adoption (which I don't think is true anymore), and thus a cut of the game revenue was required to make the consoles viable. So the console developers and the game developers had a kind of mutual interest in that. In contrast, iPhone was never sold at a loss, always at a massive profit for Apple. 3rd party app developers never needed to sacrifice their revenue to encourage iPhone adoption.
It should also be said that Apple itself considered "sideloading" on iPhone before the App Store was introduced, as shown by the emails from the Epic Games trial. Scott Forstall even said that they implemented sideloading in an internal iOS build, which he discussed in an email to Steve Jobs. AFAIK it hasn't been revealed why Apple decided against it ultimately. https://embed.documentcloud.org/documents/21043913-2008-may-...
Re: Japanese game publisher Digital Will has filed a lawsuit against Apple
#9> Apple pulls apps made by 6-person firm Digital Will. No actionable explanation was offered.
> 5 months afterwards, the firm's lawyer sent a letter to Apple.
> 2 months later, Apple reinstiated the app without any explanation.
> The firm is now suing for damages & lost revenue. $765k.
Re: Japanese game publisher Digital Will has filed a lawsuit against Apple
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You are not a monopoly on your own platform, especially if that platform doesn't even have the majority of the relevant market. iPhone has a market share of almost 70% in Japan, the location of the plaintiff. iPhone also has a market share of over 50% now in the United States, by the way. > A company makes a platform or product so that they dictate the terms and if it's a marketplace, what and how it accepts to sel…
> Historical revisionism. For more than 30 years prior to iOS, general-purpose computing platforms were mostly open with no vendor-controlled store. That's quite the historical revisionism. Phones weren't "general-purpose computing platforms" for the most part of those 30 years (Gordon Gecko's phone didn't have apps). Nor where they considered as such. And there were tons of capable of "general purpose computing" pop…
Prior to the iPhone there was Palm, which I would certainly call a general purpose computing platform, where it was easy to download and install your own pdb with no vendor restrictions.