Karma. Steve Jobs 23 years ago testified against Microsoft for Microsoft's inclusion of a web browser in Microsoft's operating system. Apple called this a monopoly. This resulted in a June 28, 2001 decision, United Staes v Microsoft, against Microsoft. Apple won but they are about to lose this round 20 years later. Karma.
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U.S. Lawmakers Introduce Antitrust Legislation That Could Significantly Impact Apple and Other Tech Companies
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Very true. Still that is not the premisse of anti competition.
Let’s see what happens. It shows just how far Microsoft has fallen that they are not on the list.
The tech giants are able to suppress their competition without actually competing. Look at Parler as an example. People organized protests primarily on Twitter and Facebook, yet the tech giants conspired to blame Parler and get it kicked off of their various app stores. Even Amazon and its dominant marketshare with AWS removed their web presence, and it took Parler more than a month to find an ISP that would let them operate. That's the kind of thing that needs to be prevented. More competition is good. Allowing giants the ability to artificially destroy their competition is not. The next rising competition will be ruthlessly destroyed by non-competitive means, I'm sure, as soon as the tech giants start feeling the heat.
Monopolies have always been bad, whether you're a liberal or a conservative. Nobody on any part of the political spectrum has thought monopolies are a good idea without strict control, like the geographically-monopolistic utilities. It would be hard to not consider entities like Google's YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon's store, AWS and others as monopolies. Even Apple's App Store can be considered a local monopoly, even though Android has a far larger market share. Whether this bill will actually foster competition, I'm dubious because the devil's always in the details, but something has to be done.
To recap you bought a product that did not do what you wanted to for fear of a shortage if certain apps were made to run on them. Now that they do not you are back to where you started. Had they been announced but not available until December would you still have returned it?
let’s look at Parler: they used the Apple and Google tools to create a product that they wanted to sell/distribute in stores that were run and owned by Apple and Google. They used business services that were owned and operated by Amazon. The businesses that Parler used to support its product decided to no longer support them due to massive public outcry and governmental scrutiny. Parler found another way to get its product back into the market by changing whom and how they did business.
Re: the Apple iOS App Store. For some reason the only people I hear complaining about Apple’s practices are the developers. The actual customers are not concerned and from all indicators are rather happy. It seems that the spat is about perceived harm to another business. And compared to what existed prior to the stores, software is much less expensive.
Why should the iOS platform allow side loading ? How is this beneficial for the majority of iOS users?
I’d rather have it the way it is than to see the government step in and destroy our companies, simple because they were masters at innovation. In other words, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
The definition of monopoly is amorphous(as in a monopoly on your own product). That’s where the courts come in.
Exactly. By bullying and concerted action (or at least collusion), the big players forced them to change how they did business.
More competition.
Lower fees for developers.
Lower prices for consumers.
Less censorship by Apple and adherence to their arbitrary policies (can't offer this, have to do that).
Note that side loading does not mean you couldn't buy your apps from Apple anymore.
De facto there's two big app stores have duopoly power.
Maybe three in some jurisdictions.
They should.
I think this is bad for the American people.
The ATT breakup of years ago didn’t really help the American people with a great outcome.
Cell service is expensive, not as good as the rest of the world, and is a triopoly.
If congressional lawmakers are so worried about having a level playing field on the Internet, why doesn't the legislation package include a restoration of net neutrality? And how about privacy legislation? I guess they're not worried that much.
Yet you typically need to get government approval for mergers. Why can't they, just stop approving these?
Sprint and T-Mobile merger was approved by a federal judge.
Sprint and T-Mobile merger approved by federal judge. Here's what it means for consumers
The No. 3 and No. 4 wireless providers have gotten approval to merge, a $26.5 billion deal the carriers sought for two years.
www.usatoday.com
So again, just STOP approving these mergers and it will solve the issue.
Apple's competition is Android. You simply cannot make the market small to fit your narrative. If I want to develop mobile Apps, I can just avoid Apple entirely and get my app on only Android phones. I still get a mobile app out there.
With this logic, Sony has a monopoly on the Playstation store and Playstation distribution - physical games STILL requires Sony approval. I cannot create a game, burn it to a Blu-Ray and sell it from my garage.
Apple is the most innovative company in the world and the world high standard for ethics, technology, and innovation. Apple is a company that all Americans should feel pride in. Yet some socialists and communists in government hate Apple for their success. If they had their way, Steve Jobs would have never created the iPhone, he would have been taxed 100% after creating the original Mac and then retired to Florida back around 1985. That's not what happened, thankfully.
Call your politicians and tell then in no uncertain terms - You DID NOT create Apple, Steve Jobs did. YOU do not make this country great, Apple and hard-working citizens make it great. Keep your hands off Apple.
Call your politicians and tell then in no uncertain terms - You DID NOT create Apple, Steve Jobs did. YOU do not make this country great, Apple and hard-working citizens make it great. Keep your hands off Apple.
Yep, they are sending a CLEAR message here. You business can NOT be too successful, under any circumstances.
Android isn't even a company.
And of course it's not only Android - but also Netflix or Spotify.
I didn't dispute that at all.
But there is a difference: Sony's Playstation is largely a gaming platform. Whereas mobile phones are increasingly delivering used for delivery of essential services (I wrote about it before). I'm certainly not saying "impossible", but it's becoming more and more impractical and expensive to live life without a smartphone.
Thoughts:
- I largely enjoy the balance of security, privacy, ease of use, and feature set that Apple has struck in their ecosystem. I hope this doesn’t mess all that up.
- Is there anything in these bills that prevents Apple from shutting down the App Store and going back to 3rd party web apps only? Not that I think Apple would. Just curious. But it would be ironic if instead of leveling the field, these bills blew it up.
- which of these bills covers the censorship that was alluded to in the remarks? It’s not apparent from the titles or descriptions.
- why is the tech industry being scrutinized for monopolies over other industries that seem as monopoly-ridden if not more?
- this is a complex issue, and I’m sure I don’t have all the right perspectives.
- I largely enjoy the balance of security, privacy, ease of use, and feature set that Apple has struck in their ecosystem. I hope this doesn’t mess all that up.
- Is there anything in these bills that prevents Apple from shutting down the App Store and going back to 3rd party web apps only? Not that I think Apple would. Just curious. But it would be ironic if instead of leveling the field, these bills blew it up.
- which of these bills covers the censorship that was alluded to in the remarks? It’s not apparent from the titles or descriptions.
- why is the tech industry being scrutinized for monopolies over other industries that seem as monopoly-ridden if not more?
- this is a complex issue, and I’m sure I don’t have all the right perspectives.
One day, maybe, the American People will actually wake up and realize that the same congress critters who are always shocked! shocked! about the existence of 'Most Important Problem X' are the same political creatures who , at the behest of their TRUE Masters, wrote the loopholes into the laws which allowed said 'Problem ' to gestate. As someone has said recently of the system: 'Its not Broke! It's Fixed!'. HOW LONG has, for example, Amazon been laying waste to local business districts? And before Amazon....weren't the same issues raised during the rise of Walmart? Just to name two....And the 'owned' class in DC and the Statehouses did WHAT? Samo...samo....move on; nothing to see here....![]()
U.S. House lawmakers today announced sweeping bipartisan antitrust legislation that could result in major changes to the tech industry, impacting companies like Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google.
![app-store-blue-banner.jpg]()
These measures are the culmination of a 16-month antitrust investigation into tech companies practices that kicked off in 2019, and which saw Apple CEO Tim Cook testify in an antitrust hearing alongside Alphabet/Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
At the conclusion of that hearing, which took place in July 2020, the U.S. House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee leading the inquiry released a 450 page report with recommendations that have turned into the new antitrust bills that were proposed today. The five bills are aimed at Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google, with Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline suggesting the legislation will "level the playing field."
Rep. Ken Buck, the lead Republican on the committee, said that the four major tech companies have "harmed American businesses and consumers" by prioritizing "power over innovation."There are five separate bipartisan bills that have been drafted by lawmakers, as outlined below:
Apple's competitors have already been weighing in on the bills. Spotify legal chief Horatio Gutierrez said in a statement that the American Choice and Innovation Online Act is an "important step in addressing anti-competitive conduct in the App Store ecosystem, and a clear sign that momentum has shifted as the world is waking up to the need to demand fair competition in the App economy."
- "American Innovation and Choice Online Act" - Prohibits discriminatory conduct by dominant platforms, including a ban on self-preferencing and picking winners and losers online.
- "Platform Competition and Opportunity Act" - Prohibits acquisitions of competitive threats by dominant platforms, as well acquisitions that expand or entrench the market power of online platforms.
- "Ending Platform Monopolies Act" - Eliminates the ability of dominant platforms to leverage their control over across multiple business lines to self-preference and disadvantage competitors in ways that undermine free and fair competition.
- "Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching (ACCESS) Act" - Promotes competition online by lowering barriers to entry and switching costs for businesses and consumers through interoperability and data portability requirements.
- The "Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act" - Updates filing fees for mergers for the first time in two decades to ensure that Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission have the resources they need to aggressively enforce the antitrust laws.
If ultimately passed, the legislation will overhaul competition laws that have not been revisited for decades, but tech companies will likely fight the bills.
Article Link: U.S. Lawmakers Introduce Antitrust Legislation That Could Significantly Impact Apple and Other Tech Companies
No you're right, allow Apple to control everything that is allowed on your phone. Lets lock the Mac down too, no installing things from the browser, store only!
Android is a platform, which I can develop mobile apps for using Android Studio. So Android Apps can compete with iOS Apps.