The Justice Department has announced a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Apple, accusing the tech giant of engineering an illegal monopoly in smartphones that boxes out competitors and stifles innovation
I don’t know what the criteria the FTC uses is, or what exactly Apple is accused of, but economically, I’d say that Apple and Google largely have different markets. There are Android users and iOS users. Because apps are not portable across these, a user’s software library largely locks them into and constrains them to use the same platform, as shifting away from the platform would require throwing out their software library.
So if you’re an iOS user, for example, there’s really one app store out there that you can use. Android isn’t really an option.
And I’d say that there’s probably fertile ground for a company to have a monopoly position there.
I’m not sure that that’s true, and that’s why I pointed out that it’s not clear what exactly Apple is accused of. That’s what the title says – and it’s also wrong, I might add, in that having a monopoly is not illegal. Just places limits on some behavior that is then considered anticompetitive.
But the article text, for example, talks about the walled garden crossing multiple devices. If that’s part of the complaint, then yeah, it can be an issue.
Here’s some text from another article that quotes the DoJ:
“Apple exercises its monopoly power to extract more money from consumers, developers, content creators, artists, publishers, small businesses, and merchants, among others,” the DOJ wrote in a press release.
Those are people who are gonna be selling in Apple’s app store.
I don’t know what the criteria the FTC uses is, or what exactly Apple is accused of, but economically, I’d say that Apple and Google largely have different markets. There are Android users and iOS users. Because apps are not portable across these, a user’s software library largely locks them into and constrains them to use the same platform, as shifting away from the platform would require throwing out their software library.
So if you’re an iOS user, for example, there’s really one app store out there that you can use. Android isn’t really an option.
And I’d say that there’s probably fertile ground for a company to have a monopoly position there.
This isn’t about an Appstore monopoly though, it’s about a monopoly in the smart phone market, which clearly Apple does not have.
I’m not sure that that’s true, and that’s why I pointed out that it’s not clear what exactly Apple is accused of. That’s what the title says – and it’s also wrong, I might add, in that having a monopoly is not illegal. Just places limits on some behavior that is then considered anticompetitive.
But the article text, for example, talks about the walled garden crossing multiple devices. If that’s part of the complaint, then yeah, it can be an issue.
Here’s some text from another article that quotes the DoJ:
Those are people who are gonna be selling in Apple’s app store.
deleted by creator