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comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  2349 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Is a closed ecosystem a monopoly?

    The reason the Apple ecosystem works so well, is because it is a highly curated and controlled environment.

Counter argument. iTunes.

    By that way of thinking, the fact that Ford only sells Ford parts for their Ford cars, is also a monopoly.

You can buy non OEM parts to maintain and repair your Ford vehicle and you do not have to take your vehicle to a licensed Ford dealership for maintenance. At the same time, purchasing a Ford vehicle does not create a system that incentivises you to purchase additional Ford vehicles down the road no does it in any way cause any barriers if you also own a Hyundai simultaneously. Where as, if you buy an Apple product and get locked in the Apple ecosystem, there are built in incentives that encourage you to continue buying Apple products instead of changing platforms.





goobster  ·  2349 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    if you buy an Apple product and get locked in the Apple ecosystem

Which is, at its core, why you buy an Apple product.

Complaining that you chose to buy an Apple instead of something else, shows that the monopoly argument holds no water.

kleinbl00  ·  2349 days ago  ·  link  ·  

No fuck that.

I bought Apple because they had synchronous audio transfer whereas ActiveX was packetized. I used Apple for a long-ass time because it's the friendliest form of UNIX there is and that's where all my professional apps lived. But then this happened

And then this happened

And now I'm forced to deal with GalapagosOS because Apple utterly and completely shit the bed.

Do not for one minute think I have any iDevices in my life because I want talking fucking dog avatars.

user-inactivated  ·  2349 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Then I think the real question becomes, not whether or not it's a monopoly, but whether or not its still consumer friendly. It's an idea worth exploring.

goobster  ·  2348 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Consumer-friendliness is not a regulatory trait.

The market will determine whether the product fit their need or not, and will buy it. Or not.

This is not a place where regulation has a role.

tacocat  ·  2349 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Not legally. It's not a monopoly. It's not illegal to be not consumer friendly. I gladly bought into an ecosystem that doesn't allow me to install whatever code I want. If you don't like it, you are free to buy an Android phone. And install a shady app programmed in Russia that will steal your credit card information and use it to pay for a kilo of cocaine.

The App Store ecosystem is the best example of Apple locking down their shit. I've had Android phones and iPhones and Google Play is a nightmare. If you want to whinge about something Apple does that's shitty, bitch about the Mac App Store and how you have to go into System Preferences to authorize the installation of programs from developers that they don't recognize or whatever their pay rate is for music.