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U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone monopoly

nytimes.com

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Re: U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone monopoly

#461

Post by sircastor »

Lots of comments here about the duopoly of Apple and Google (and I'm of the opinion that one cannot have a monopoly of its own product)

It's telling to me that not even Microsoft was able to make this work. There may have been some other internal interests at play, but their historical strength and background was in providing a platform, and then they dropped out when it didn't last. Likewise, Palm didn't last long in the space either.

It's not clear to me if there simply is not room for 3+ operating systems in a widely distributed mobile market.

Re: U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone monopoly

#462

Post by LordKeren »

stephc_int13 wrote: post #242

Apple top management should have seen this coming ~years~ ago. Both Apple and Google could have prevented this by being smarter and less greedy in the first place, understanding the central role of developers and third party companies in their ecosystems. Not sure about this lawsuit, I don't really care at this point, the whole process in unrolling and won't stop until this is over, and this won't end up in a nice pl…

Apple and Google absolutely saw this coming and both have come to the conclusion that the outcome of this lawsuit will be less costly than trying to preemptively deal with the issue — and risk overshooting the target, leaving money on the table.

Even if the DoJ wins on every aspect of this lawsuit, it still would hardly put a dent in apple’s profits. They aren’t going after the big ticket money makers in a way that is going to impact apple’s profits.

Re: U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone monopoly

#463

Post by skeaker »

jacobr1 wrote: post #388
Fripplebubby wrote: post #287

For folks who don't have time to read a 90 page document, the case rests on specific claims, not just the general claim that iPhone is a monopoly because it's so big. Here are those claims: 1. "Super Apps" Apple has restrictions on what they allow on the App Store as far as "Super Apps", which are apps that might offer a wide variety of different services (specifically, an app which has several "mini programs" within…

> Apple itself offers a "super app" of course, which is the Apple ecosystem of apps. Not sure I buy this point. Competitors can also offer their own suite of apps. Apple has an advantage that they can come pre-installed. But they aren't really building super-apps, just a variety of default apps - nothing stops third parties from offering multiple apps on the platform, that is actually a common thing to do.

I think it refers more to a hypothetical app that, when you're using it, would allow you to completely ignore the entire Apple software ecosystem. It would have its own home screen with launchers to things like a web browser, office tools, media, etc. I think this sort of thing never came to fruition because (aside from it being very hard to make) it would be way too bulky what with having to come in the form of a single app package. The ban on third party stores means it wouldn't be able to offer its own app store or come in segments so you can pick only the apps you want.

Re: U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone monopoly

#464

Post by smoldesu »

ChildOfChaos wrote: post #452

I don't know why, but for some reason why I see something like this, I can't help but imagine what it must be like for Tim Cook receiving this news when he is randomly going about his day. It's got to be a huge punch to the face and I wonder how such people deal with such news.

I hope he's using it as an opportunity to reflect on FOMO-based business strategies and the impacts of regressive software censorship. Tim made a lot of tough choices in his tenure, and now his chickens are coming home to roost.

Hopefully he's happy with the decisions he made.

Re: U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone monopoly

#465

Post by jupp0r »

"The company “undermines” the ability of iPhone users to message with owners of other types of smartphones, like those running the Android operating system, the government said. That divide — epitomized by the green bubbles that show an Android owner’s messages — sent a signal that other smartphones were lower quality than the iPhone, according to the lawsuit."

Is this even factually true? Messages that are sent as texts appear green, whether it's to other iPhones or devices made by Apple's competitors. The green color warns me that messages are not end-to-end encrypted and can potentially be read by any man in the middle with access to telephony infrastructure.

Re: U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone monopoly

#467

Post by w1n5t0n91 »

jwagenet wrote: post #361
gnicholas wrote: post #13

> The Justice Department, which began its investigation into Apple in 2019, chose to build a broader and more ambitious case than any other regulator has brought against the company. As I was reading the specific charges detailed in the article, I was thinking this case seems like a stretch and will be difficult to prove. Apple will argue that security and/or performance reasons drove their decisions related to brows…

It seems to me the US would be better off copy-pasting EU regulation than trying to smush apples behavior into old school antitrust violations.

[flagged]

Re: U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone monopoly

#468

Post by gregorygoc »

Both Apple and Google are ruthless monopolies but when there was a post about an antitrust against Google you could’ve clearly seen a bias against them. Whereas Apple gets a free pass because their products are „cool”. This is a sad state of HN nowadays.

Re: U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone monopoly

#469

Post by jupp0r »

"The government also said Apple had tried to maintain its monopoly by not allowing other companies to build their own digital wallets. Apple Wallet is the only app on the iPhone that can use the chip, known as the NFC, that allows a phone to tap-to-pay at checkout."

NFC works fine with ChargePoint for example. There are APIs for app developers to take advantage of the chip if they want to use the functionality on their own hardware. This is merely about the level of abstraction that access is allowed to, and as a consumer, I appreciate Apple enforcing rigorous standards there vs dealing with 500 different buggy implementations.

Re: U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone monopoly

#470

Post by gnicholas »

ben7799 wrote: post #384
Fripplebubby wrote: post #287

For folks who don't have time to read a 90 page document, the case rests on specific claims, not just the general claim that iPhone is a monopoly because it's so big. Here are those claims: 1. "Super Apps" Apple has restrictions on what they allow on the App Store as far as "Super Apps", which are apps that might offer a wide variety of different services (specifically, an app which has several "mini programs" within…

Interesting, I've had 2 Garmin Smart Watches and never felt like Apple was restricting them. I am curious what things the iPhone does that others aren't allowed to do. Most of the differences between Garmin and Apple Watch seem like they were conscious decisions where they each decided to take a different direction. It's one of those weird things where it seems like the case has a bunch of holes. You can use an iPhon…

You can't reply to text messages from other smartwatches, or at least not organically (only canned responses).
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