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Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?

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Re: Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?

#21

Post by mikhailt »

Monopoly isn't illegal, it is the anti-trust or anti-competition that got MS in trouble. If MS didn't try all the scare tactics that they did, then they would still be allowed to keep IE bundled just like Apple.

Because MS got convicted, they're forced to make up for all sort of things and that is why MS is getting all sort of attentions about the browsers, they're still regulated by the governments due to the laws that MS broke.

Apple hasn't done any of that, so there are no regulations and Apple is fully in its right to do what it wants.

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?

#22

Post by fauxscot »

It's reaaaaaaaly hard to claim monopoly and restraint of trade when your are the highest priced thing in the market. The platform is also not locked down, in the sense that it can be jailbroken and apps (without QA or other oversight) can be bought, sought, installed and used. Yes, they have a commanding position in key areas of their markets, but plenty of folks are willing to pay a premium and plenty of other folks are willing to write apps under Apple guidelines and restrictions. There are too many ways to distinguish the Apple of today with the US Steel of yesterday. The problem is, the headstart grabbed by Apple isn't something any other single COMPANY (Android isn't a company) has been able to counter. This is all legit competition and it is lethal. Apple has just confiscated market participants formerly belonging to RIM, Nokia, MS, Dell, HP. Their stupidity is not legal grounds to oppose Apple's success.

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?

#23

Post by tzs »

Obligatory car analogy: Apple's position in tablets and phones is similar to Ford's position in cars. Ford will not sell you a car with a Chevy engine. Ford is in the complete car market, and an engine is an essential part of a complete car.

Antitrust law tries to be reasonable. This means that for those things that are the main or essential components of a produce, the manufacturer should be free to choose those components.

If antitrust law looked too deeply into individual components, costs for everyone would go way up. Imagine the manufacturing nightmare if, say, Dell had to worry that if they used capacitors from Dielectric Laboratories in their motherboards, they might get sued for not also offering the choice of capacitors from Johnson Dielectrics, ROHM Products, or Illinois Capacitor.

For tablets and smartphones, internet browsing is practically one of the defining features of the product. A typical consumer who bought a tablet and found it had no browser preinstalled would be about as shocked as someone who bought a Ford and found no engine installed.

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?

#25

Post by tzs »

b4c0n wrote: post #3
wems wrote: post #2

Microsoft also said they would drop licensing to companies like dell, toshiba, if they were to include netscape in the PCs that they sold

Still doesn't answer my question.

Monopolies are not illegal under antitrust. What is illegal are certain practices designed to lead to monopoly, including using dominance in one market to try to gain power in another, unrelated market.

By bundling the browser and penalizing manufacturers who wanted to bundle a different browser in addition or instead of Microsoft's, Microsoft was using their dominance in one market (desktop operating systems for x86 PCs) to try to gain power in an unrelated market (internet browsing applications that run on Windows). Hence, they ran into antitrust problems.

In tablets and smartphones, there has not really been a separate market for internet browsing applications. The market for tablets and smartphones has been for complete internet devices (hardware, OS, and browser) from the start.

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?

#26

Post by discordance »

I'm seeing a lot of replies about Apple not having a majority market share in devices, so therefor they can't be considered a monopoly.

I'm curious about if Apple did have a majority market share, would they then be classified as monopolistic?

I understand Apple's point in terms of securing the OS, but allowing mobile safari to have higher access privileges over 3rd party browsers seems unfair, no?

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no stopping Apple's monopoly of tablet/phone's browsers?

#27

Post by youngtaff »

true_religion wrote: post #8
polyfractal wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alternatives were available to IE as well (netscape).

IE won because: (a) It was sincerely better than Netscape at the time (b) It came bundled in with the system (c) It came bundled in with the system because Microsoft chose not to charge ISPs to do.

Netscape got themselves in a right mess with two overlapping versions in development Competing on Internet Time (http://amzn.to/QenoYs) talks about this in detail.

It's funny how bundling a browser got MS into trouble but is now de facto.

Wonder when Apple hijacking browser links and re-routing them to their own apps e.g. Google Map links to iOS maps app, will be considered monopolistic.

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