> There are thousands of powerful smartphones on the market, from many different companies and even countries.

You're being deceptive here. Apple App Store and Google Play Store are what we are talking about. There aren't many other avenues that can reach consumers.

> I'm okay with it.

You're okay with me having to pay hard earned money to Apple and Google? Having to work that much harder? To be unable to afford to lean into scaling? Because that's awful.

Fuck that.

These companies are anti-entrepreneur.

> You're being deceptive here. Apple App Store and Google Play Store are what we are talking about.

I'm using your own words - you said 'pocket computers'.

And you can load your own applications onto Android, can't you? So use that!

> There are thousands of powerful smartphones on the market, from many different companies and even countries.

There are only 2 major OS's.

And doesn't one of them allow your own apps? So why don't you use that one if that's what you prefer?

I understand that, but your original argument was disingenuous.

The central question at hand is the App Store monopoly, and your argument was:

> There are thousands of powerful smartphones on the market, from many different companies and even countries.

But that number willfully misrepresents the current state of the market as it pertains to the current discussion because all but one of those powerful smartphones only operate on one other OS, and by extension, one other App Store regime.

Whether this OS duopoly is acceptable is the whole debate.

You know what the “mono” in “monopoly” means right?

No, I'm an idiot, please explain it to me.

Of course I know what it means — the argument is way more nuanced than "hurr durr there are 2 and 2 > 1".

It actually isn’t. When you have a choice between paying a premium and paying half as much like 85% of the world. It isn’t a monopoly.

I encourage you to read the original article.

Couple things:

1. The argument isn't that it's a monopoly, it's that it's arguably monopsony. The issue is less that users don't have the choice to buy the phone they want with the OS they want, it's that developers/suppliers are unable to access a huge chunk of the market without being forced to pay 30% of earnings.

2. While it's closer to a "duopsony" than a "monopsony", it gets a little more complicated when you look at the level of each regional market. In the US, Apple's market share is closer to 50%.

Maybe it's not anti-competitive for there to be only 2 app buyers on the market, but maybe it is. That's the debate, and it's by no means clear cut.

The duopoly controls distribution. That's the classic definition of a cartel.

Google and Apple are a cartel.

They made the world worse than it was for software distribution. It used to be open in the 90's and 00's.

The definition of cartel requires collusion. This is reason 101 that HN posters make horrible lawyers.

There are two pocket OS systems.