WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Four more U.S. states on Tuesday joined the Justice Department's lawsuit against Apple Inc alleging the iPhone maker is monopolizing smartphone markets, the department said in a statement. The four states are Indiana, Massachusetts, Nevada and Washington, the Justice Departme...
I don't understand how Apple can be a monopoly if there are other viable choices for smartphones. Are people just bitter about apple or is there some corrupt financial play behind the scenes?
It's about the restrictions they put in place on those who have bought their products. They make it extremely hard to leave their ecosystem, overcharge for services, and prevent interoperability with other products.
They're only just now allowing RCS to try getting out ahead of these lawsuits. But they still don't allow side-loading (forcing developers to use their store so they can charge 30% on all sales), don't allow third-party app stores, and don't allow third-party browser engines (forcing everyone to reskin Safari).
Plus, in the US, Apple has 55% market share as just one company. The next highest is Samsung at 25%.
Thanks. I have android and had no idea it was that bad. I just figured people would stop buying iPhones if they didn't like it but if it's hard to migrate between systems, then that definitely sucks.
There's lots of stuff like enforcing WebKit for browsers, iCloud for background cloud syncing, subscription disadvantages (end trial for competitor = end of period, end trial for Apple = now), giving their 1st party native apps advantageous functionality competitors can't (yet), etc.
Because you don't have to be the only player in the overall game to be a monopoly, just simply big and powerful enough to be unaffected by the other players which fits Apples description.
Precisely. This is why the EU is harder on these companies.
When you get big enough, there are different rules to ensure that you don't distort a market by killing competition. That is anti-trust, and that is considered a monopoly.