UK courts are fighting them over Giphy. US FTC is fighting them over Beat Games (Beat Saber) and Within Unlimited (Supernatural).
I'm not saying FAAMGs should be able to spend hundreds of billions unchecked in consolidating M&A, but this contradiction when no one flinches at Microsoft buying Activision makes it pretty obvious, in my possibly mistaken opinion, that this is no objective process.
There isn’t much lock in with phones or tablets as people go back and forth between iOS and Android. Apple’s advantage is simply selling a compelling product with great advertising which is why they are so profitable.
I find it odd that people get so invested in Apple as a company, but while beating them head to head is difficult it’s also potentially extremely profitable.
Buying all the apps is an additional factor to be considered.
>There is’t much lock in with phones or tablets as people go back and forth between iOS and Android.
It still complicated to transfer all data and settings from one Android phone to another Android phone.
I highly doubt it's simpler to transfer all data from iOS to Android or vice versa
> It still complicated to transfer all data and settings from one Android phone to another Android phone.
Odd, it’s almost trivial to go from iPhone to iPhone, but I never had 2 Android phones in a row.
Anyway, despite it being a major revenue stream most people purchase minimal if any apps and of those many can make the swap. Money sinks like Clash of Clans generally let you transfer accounts between platforms to keep people hooked. And of course subscription like Disny+ are independent.
iOS doesn’t have 95% market share.
Edit to clarify: Windows had a monopoly on the desktop market in a way that is different to regulators (I guess) from the Google-Apple duopoly of today’s mobile market.
> that you can’t do with any other expensive smartphone
There are two, again two platforms that matter for phones. That's it. "Well, it is not 1, so we can just twiddle our thumbs and ignore the problem" is not at all convincing. And then people get sidetracked with "but the term monopoly taken literally means...". Yes, nobody cares. Antitrust is explicitly not just about that.
Your first sentence used "you". The second said "the average person".
That is two different statements. HN users are not Joe Average. Apart from working with the Apple Ecosystem, I cannot get enough privacy on Android. The new changes does not mean that Android is acceptable, it just means that the Iphone is also not acceptable, leaving me with zero acceptable smart phones.
Yet. If iOS News app is any indication of how bad their ads will be then I think they really will be hurting themselves in the long term. My guess is there are many like myself who now use Apple products as the “least bad” option rather than truly liking them anymore, that sentiment will grow way faster when people start seeing ads in more places.
I’m one of those people where consistent keyboard shortcuts is the main sticky feature, but that only let’s me put up with so much.
I agree. The iPhone is indeed not perfect, but Android makes me grow white hair. (I don’t use the news app though. Can’t say anything about it. If they start putting ads around the system I will think of alternatives.)
If it wear MS not Apple they would already be fined for anti competitive behavior.
Where is the difference between MS bundling IE with Windows and Apple forcing Webkit in all iOS browsers?