Why Don’t People Talk About Breaking Up Microsoft? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Don’t People Talk About Breaking Up Microsoft?

#71

Post by parasubvert » Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 5:47 PM UTC

dwaltrip wrote: post #57

parasubvert wrote: post #43

Because PCs and Office productivity software are a niche, and it’s hard to argue their market leadership in a niche is being illegally exploited to take over other markets. What markets? Well, the only one that matters right now is cloud, as it’s gradually eating the entire enterprise software and hardware industry, with hundreds of billions of dollars at stake. Put another way, Microsoft certainly bought their #2 po…

Is it really that niche if it has powered Microsoft to being the most valuable company in the world? Not sure what my conclusion is, but Microsoft is an interesting anti-trust case now that I am thinking about it.

Yes, it would still be a niche. Microsoft is successful because they are actually rather diversified. They have several niche cash cows that, combined, make for a very valuable company. Google struggles with this because they’re so dependent on search revenue.

It’s not illegal to be big. This article is largely wishful thinking on whether it should be.

Re: Why Don’t People Talk About Breaking Up Microsoft?

#72

Post by arcticbull » Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 5:49 PM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #68

arcticbull wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I assume by "take seriously" the poster meant that their marketshare was pretty insignificant along all axes. The Apple App Store has a 100% market share of the iPhone app market and by proxy has control of all apps on 90% of the entire revenue in the smartphone space. Microsoft Store has ... nothing. Bing has 33% market share in the US an 9% globally. That's not a monopoly. A monopoly has to control an overwhelming…

And every console maker has 100% share of their app markets. Should we break them up to?

I'd not be opposed to open access rules for developers. With that said, there are 3 major consoles on the market, and then if you include phones and PCs, it's by no means a monopolized market.

Re: Why Don’t People Talk About Breaking Up Microsoft?

#73

Post by scarface74 » Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 6:05 PM UTC

arcticbull wrote: post #72

scarface74 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And every console maker has 100% share of their app markets. Should we break them up to?

I'd not be opposed to open access rules for developers. With that said, there are 3 major consoles on the market, and then if you include phones and PCs, it's by no means a monopolized market.

So you think that Nintendo - who markets itself as being kid friendly - should be forced to accept any game?

Would you be okay if Nintendo was forced to allow the worse aspects of the mobile gaming market - advertising supported games, loot boxes, in app purchases “pay to win”, etc.? Should they be forced to allow Grand Theft Auto on their platform where you can literally beat people up with a dildo?

The mobile market is not “monopolized” either. You can choose to either publish games on iOS, Android with Google Play or Android without Google Play.

Re: Why Don’t People Talk About Breaking Up Microsoft?

#74

Post by arcticbull » Tue, Aug 13, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #73

arcticbull wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd not be opposed to open access rules for developers. With that said, there are 3 major consoles on the market, and then if you include phones and PCs, it's by no means a monopolized market.

So you think that Nintendo - who markets itself as being kid friendly - should be forced to accept any game? Would you be okay if Nintendo was forced to allow the worse aspects of the mobile gaming market - advertising supported games, loot boxes, in app purchases “pay to win”, etc.? Should they be forced to allow Grand Theft Auto on their platform where you can literally beat people up with a dildo? The mobile marke…

Again, no, because the console market is competitive so intervention is unnecessary.

Potentially separately, I'd not object to requiring the ability for console makers to allow side-loaded apps people themselves make. I'm not suggesting forcing them to distribute anything via their own App Stores. You can side load onto Android phones and it's not an issue. You can download and run literally anything you want onto your PC or macOS devices, and it's not an issue. You can even side-load anything you want onto your iPhones via Xcode if you have the source and again, not an issue.

Re: Why Don’t People Talk About Breaking Up Microsoft?

#75

Post by scott_s » Wed, Aug 14, 2019, 9:04 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #27

calais wrote: post #10

The last time antitrust action was taken against Microsoft ( United States v. Microsoft Corp. , filed in 2001), law folks' tech-illiteracy and Microsoft's slitheriness led to a penalty of merely having to publish API documentation. The aim had been to make Windows an interface that competitors could implement. I hope Microsoft gets served for antitrust again, and that this time a savvier legal community can actually…

This is what you'd believe if all you'd known about the Microsoft antitrust case was what Wikipedia records about it it in the short "Settlement" section of the Microsoft Antitrust Case article. In reality, the case broke Microsoft's monopoly on pretty much everything but desktop operating systems (the market broke that later on) and a chastened Microsoft was unable to apply its 1990s tactics to the emerging mobile m…

> In reality, the case broke Microsoft's monopoly on pretty much everything but desktop operating systems (the market broke that later on) and a chastened Microsoft was unable to apply its 1990s tactics to the emerging mobile market, in which it was soundly trounced.

And search. This piece makes the argument that fear of further antitrust trouble inside Microsoft is why they didn't crush Google in the beginning (search for the phrase "If you are younger than 29" to get to the paragraph): https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/20/magazine/the-case-against...