[azov]

We may want to start thinking about smartphones as infrastructure.

It’s not practical to run five sets of power lines to each house so that utility companies can compete in a free market. Thus utility companies are heavily regulated.

But it’s also not practical for each person to carry five smartphones. So, maybe we need to regulate this space as well?..

[cedws]

This makes sense but is twisting the arms of the infrastructure companies the way to go? Can't we just encourage free market dynamics? If open platforms are what the consumer wants, manufacturers will sell phones with open platforms and the consumer will decide what they want to buy. EU funding can help rebalance if needed by helping develop new competitors.

[bee_rider]

EU voters decided to use regulations instead of the market. That’s their right. There’s no reason to give the market some magic position as the only way to do things.

[Nursie]

> the consumer will decide what they want to buy

Except people don't actually buy in a way that's consistent with enlightened self interest, making the free market at best a poor approximation to reality.

Consumers buy what's advertised, what's 'influenced', what their friends have and what's shiny, ahead of what might actually be useful for them. Micro-level decisions people make rarely take into account macro-level consequences.

This is not to say I think regulation is an amazing solution to everything, but more that I think there is a religiosity to free-market proponents that credits market participants and markets themselves with more than their due.

[kelnos]

> Can't we just encourage free market dynamics?

The free market is a myth. We have a smartphone OS duopoly, and neither one needs to provide what customers actually want in order to be successful.

A new company entering this market will have essentally no chance of being successful.

We don't have a healthy, competitive market here. If I want to buy a new couch, I have hundreds of manufacturers to choose from, with a wide variety of styles and colors. I can pretty much find my perfect couch, given enough research. And if for some reason I can't, I can hire someone to make me a fully custom couch.

Obviously furniture and phone OSes are not the same thing, and it isn't feasible to expect there would be a market for hundreds of different phone OSes. But the principle is the same.

[zigzag312]

> Can't we just encourage free market dynamics?

1) It's not a simple thing to do.

2) The opening of platforms can be considered a way of encouraging free market dynamics.