Microsoft was almost broken up because they installed IE on Windows PCs 25 years ago.
False. They had systemic anticompetitive behavior:
- code to create synthetic error messages if you use some third party offerings
- branding the crash messages, e.g. netscape crashes give the user an option to download/switch to IE
- restricting vendors from installing third party applications
- penalizing hardware vendors by not giving them access to Windows 95 until post-consumer launch for not meeting Microsoft's demands
Microsoft falsely claimed that IE was a core part of the OS to try to justify their behavior in terms of monopoly abuse, but it was shown that it was entirely possible to remove IE.
The biggest core difference is that Apple hasn't restricted OEMs, because they have no OEMs. Apple is the only one selling iOS devices.
Conversely, Apple
did make the browser engine a core component of the OS, and shipped safari, chat, mail and music support a year before they even had the
capability to install third party software.
And the browser (specifically the javascript engine) is indeed a component that is not replicable by third parties without breaking the OS security model. Javascript and WASM need to be either interpreted or compiled locally after being downloaded, making it
the vector for dynamic buffer overflow/remote code execution attacks.
Microsoft couldn't make such a security argument because... well, they had zero security before ~2000.
Monopolies are a bad thing folks.
Monopolies are a cherished part of capitalism. It is called doing your job better than anyone else and winning.
It's the abuses of monopoly position that are bad - that means you are changing the rules of the game to make it so nobody else can win.
The thing is - Apple has tried very hard not to change the rules. It's the expectations of what others can do on their platform is what has changed a the platform has grown.
Look at Spotify - they have basically said that Apple is abusing their monopoly position by taking iTunes and.. altering how it bills people. Well, and a bunch of complaints where (similarly to Epic) they whine that Apple gives them the same APIs and rules and cut that they give every other third party developer.