Apple Sued by U.S. Department of Justice, Says Lawsuit is 'Wrong'

[Manzanito]

Apple can never be wrong, must be the governments of all the western world the ones mistaken

 

[Macalway]

I wonder how this is going to affect the Market, which is pretty much all. I care about.

Tech is just crazy lately. Some serious momentum.

 

[scorpio vega]

Anyone against this should explain - in detail - why choice is not good.

At the end of the day, everything the EU and now the DoJ are doing is all about consumer choice. I should be able to do what I want, when I want, with my purchased hardware.

What's wrong with this? They're not shoving anything down your throat. If you want to stick to the garden, you can do that.

I have a choice. I can use iOS and I do.
I could choose lagdroid. I don’t want lagdroid because it’s terrible. I chose iOS because it is not lagdroid.

 

[onenorth]

If I want to buy a replacement part for an appliance, I can either get the factory part or a third-party copy for a fraction of the cost. The reason the copies are cheap is because they are inferior. The third-parties are competing on price not quality. If I use a low quality part, my appliance may break again or worse. But regardless, all of the parts must be compatible with the appliance.

So if Apple loses, the world will be filled with cheap third-party solutions that don't work well and compete only on price not quality. They still will have to be compatible. I don't see how we as consumers will be better off. This is only to help the third-parties who want to sell the cheap low quality stuff.

 

[scorpio vega]

Which only works if YOU choose to go into the ecosystem.

i know it is sacrilege to even infer it but there are alternatives to buying iPhones and iPads, even if you use a Mac.

what is it that stops YOU buying the alternatives.

Those alternatives are inferior

 

[VulchR]

And here is where your case breaks down. You again can choose not to use said apps or things. None of those things you just complained about have any effect on the walled garden.
Also if the walled garden is required for security then their is some massive fundmental issues with the OS as the walled garden only provides the illusion of security.

As an iPhone user, I have no choice - it's the App Store or nothing - the smartphone thing is a red herring. I already have an iPhone, iPad - and I have no choice - hence monopoly. And Apple takes advantage of that.

If I wanted a system like Android, I would have bought an Android smartphone. I don't. I don't want the government reducing the difference between Apple's offerings and the others'. That would reduce choice. I also do not want the Apple ecosystem fragmenting because of government interference. Don't like the terms and conditions that Apple products have? Fine - then don't buy them. You have that choice.

 

[Iconoclysm]

Your choice was to buy into the Apple ecosystem, you could have chosen Android. See your argument fails that easily

That's exactly what I said...not sure how that fails when we agree.

 

[PowerButton]

🤔 So let me get this straight.

If I create a new product that’s massively successful and surpasses 50% market share [in the states] it’s all of a sudden a monopoly?
Wouldn’t pharmaceutical companies be guilty of that?

 

[MilaM]

Correct. Could it be that apples business practices are legal, but some locations do t like that apple has a legal, but tight grip on the iPhone? Nah. /s

Ironically, the only government that does not have a problem with Apple, is China, the bastion of democracy and civil liberties.

Maybe Tim Cook will move Apple HQ to China. That would be a funny outcome.

 

[tgwaste]

This is what you voted for apple.

 

[ThaGoochiestMane]

Exactly. If this goes the way the MS suit did, Apple will be a 40 trillion dollar company in a couple of decades. Also, most people can't even tell you what MS was actually found guilty of. Hint: it wasn't IE bundling.

Was it misuse of The Rolling Stones property?

 

[turbineseaplane]

If Apple loses, Apple will likely shut down in retaliation. See how that will destroy US tech industry.

Markets are doing fine, up in fact, all while Apple is down

Not worried

 

[scorpio vega]

As an iPhone user, I have no choice - it's the App Store or nothing - the smartphone thing is a red herring. I already have an iPhone, iPad - and I have no choice - hence monopoly. And Apple takes advantage of that.

You can choose to use android. You want the apple ecosystem with the android ideology and iOS shouldn’t be weakened because you want your cake and eat it too

 

[Beautyspin]

Mobile developer here with apps and games on iOS and Android. For our Android side we use a service that distributes our apps out to all the different third party app stores between the Samsung store and a bunch of similar regional / brand specific stores. We make roughly 99% of our revenue from Google Play.

I am totally fine with Apple and Google's 15% / 30% cut because that's where the customers are. Sure, some of these other Android stores offer better rates, but, uhh, who cares about saving 5% on $17 worth of sales? It's irrelevant comparatively.

It's made no sense to me why Apple has been fighting this hard, as iOS with third party App Stores will be the same. There will be no noticeable migration of users to other platforms and any money lost would be a rounding error.

They're fighting because once this passes, they can no longer hold the big players to ransom. The Spotify situation will not occur. They would have to negotiate from a position of weakness rather than strength. It is a new feeling for them, after a long time.

 

[AhRiHmAn]

Only because it is a U.S company….
Oh wait 🤔

 

[Iconoclysm]

And you have the choice to leave the Apple ecosystem and switch to android.

And when you do, and you repurchase all of those apps, those developers will be double dipping.

 

[turbineseaplane]

So I'm no longer allowed to invent and then profit from my invention.

Try a little harder to understand the actual situation than this
C'mon

 

[erikkfi]

The choice is that you buy other products. That's why this isn't a monopoly or even close to a monopoly. There's an obvious problem at this point where the app store is the only way into Apple's ecosystem, but calling it a monopoly is definitely the wrong terminology.

It's so weird that these people who study and practice competition-related law decided to file this lawsuit instead of considering the simple fact that you can just buy a OnePlus or Nothing phone if you don't like Apple's on-platform app distribution monopoly and anticompetitively exclusive use of hardware and software features! Why didn't anyone tell them there are other smartphone brands?? Apparently they met with Tim - you'd think he would've mentioned that there are other manufacturers. Gosh, what an oversight. What a blunder of basic corporate leadership.

 

[mannyvel]

It'll be interesting to see how you have a monopoly on the smartphone market with 40% market share.

 

[1129846]

If I wanted a system like Android, I would have bought an Android smartphone. I don't. I don't want the government reducing the difference between Apple's offerings and the others'. That would reduce choice. I also do not want the Apple ecosystem fragmenting because of government interference. Don't like the terms and conditions that Apple products have? Fine - then don't buy them. You have that choice.

Again none of those changes would affect that.
Yet again you have said nothing that changes that.
You can choose only to use the App store. Side loading would not affect you.

But since you are going with t he dont like the Apple terms and conditions then here the response. Dont like the countries laws or government MOVE. You are free to move to a different country/ State and so on. Never mind logicist of it. Move. That is the argument you are making right now so move it is the same thing.

 

[VulchR]

Those are world wide numbers not US numbers......

I stand corrected. The US market share for Apple's smartphones seems to be somewhere between 40-50% (see for instance link). That still means there is plenty of choice. One can buy and Android smartphone if you do not like Apple's ecosystem.

 

[Hildy]

I remember trying to get apps for my Nokia smart phone before the iPhone was released. Life was a nightmare pre-iPhone and App Store. Every time I think about adding applications outside of the Apple ecosystem for anything I have an extra layer of FUD and concern about security.

Down with big government stepping in where they do not belong. Next they will decide the App Store should be a federally run entity and totally jam things up. Jerks.

 

[scrapesleon]

if they have an issue get an android and stop complaining

 

[truthsteve]

Yes on VLC and it annoys me, but I don't use it much. I believe Photoshop has used the main menu bar since at least CS3 or 4, but yes that annoyed me also.

VLC is very popular and it did not die from failing to adhere to guidelines

 

[Manzanito]

So I'm no longer allowed to invent and then profit from my invention. I wonder if the legal fees, etc. that Apple and others have to pay costs more than the products themselves.
If Apple opens all up and someone gets robbed by the app - they will then sue Apple for allowing the bad app to be installed.

If apple didn’t profit off of the iPhones they sell, you may have a point.

Countless of smaller companies than apple manage to be profitable without having to force their customers to give them more money after the product is sold. Apple was like that before the iPhone.

Imagine buying a house and the builder gets to get a cut of everything that enters your household. Apple wants just that.