| > that MS was a software maker, not a hardware maker. This doesn't matter. If microsoft built all of the computer hardware in the world, as well, then there is absolutely no way that society would let them engage in anti-competitive practices. Instead, that would be even worse, as it would show microsoft having even more market power. Take a look at the railroads as a similar example. The railroad companies built their own railroads. But obviously, even though railroad companies built their own railroads, they still got hit with anti-trust. The railroad companies lost. Building the hardware, or railroads, is not a defense. > Apple doesn't seem to be leveraging their market position (in any market) to force suppliers to pay Apple even when Apple isn't involved. Sure they are. Once someone owns a phone, it now belongs to them. It no longer belongs to Apple. Apple is no longer involved in any way, with the hardware that the consumer now owns. That is now Apple getting involved in a different market. > Sony makes their own gaming hardware From a high level I would not say that Sony has nearly the same amount of market power as Apple does. Thats why the same arguments don't apply. It has nothing to do with them making hardware. But, on the other hand, if there were only 1 major game platform, then anti-trust law would absolutely apply. If only xBoxes existed, then they would have significant market power. > but not Sony or Microsoft. I think it's a good question. The reason is because Apple has way more market power than the playstation and the xbox. Thats it. > a strong case against the iOS App Store The very strong case is that it is very clear that Apple has significant market power. That is the only thing that matters. The only thing that matters, at all, is that Apple clearly has significant market power, and that means that it cannot engage in certain actions. There is nothing at all in the sherman anti-trust act that says "If you build the hardware entirely, then you can engage in anti-competitive actions". Please show be the paragraph in that law, that says that. It does not exist. The only thing that matters is market power. > I think Apple is too big I don't care about them being big. Instead what I want is for them to not engage in anti competitive practices. > we need to do something, and this annoys me What we need to do is end the anti competitive practices, and force apple to allow all major 3rd party app stores to be installed on the iphone. That is not a vague proscription. It is very specific. The government needs to force Apple to allow 3rd party app stores in the same way that they forced microsoft to allow people to easily choose a different web browser. |
If you want to talk about European antitrust actions against MS, okay, go ahead, but those are not a precedent for the US DOJ.
If you want to talk about a hypothetical reality in which the case against MS went differently, okay, go ahead, but that isn't what happened in the US in real-life history.
You're acting as if your perception of moral right and wrong are somehow winning arguments in court, and that's just not how it works. It's not how any of this works. The letter of the Sherman Antitrust Act would have resulted in so so so many companies broken up, and yet very few have been broken up at all, and rarely along the strict lines of the Act itself. The DOJ will need to make a legal case against Apple, and they'll need to answer Apple's legal arguments in defense, and precedent matters.
Reading the history of the DOJ's case against MS, and how badly that went for the DOJ, would be helpful.
Again, for the third and final time, I think that Apple has too much power. But saying that Sony isn't an antitrust case because MS exists, but Apple is an antitrust case despite Samsung and Google existing, that's not the sort of thing that seems very convincing. Once you get into the weeds on how to measure the market power of various companies, well, in those weeds is where Apple wants the conversation to go, which is literally what I said on my very first comment on this thread. It's still true.
Apple sells a minority of smartphones worldwide and hovers around 50% in the US. That's what makes this a tough case to win. I think they have too much power, and you think they have too much power, but they have a reasonable defense argument that will need to be overcome. It's not clear that a judge, and the majority of an appeals court, will agree.
P.S. Assuming you get past the hurdles and manage to make a case that Apple requires remedies, "allow third-party app stores" has a ton of legal issues as well. This is very different from what MS was required to do in the EU, which itself was seen as beyond what US law could require them to do.