Ah hah! I'm glad you brought this up.

What did Internet Explorer have? DOMINANT MARKETSHARE. That was the problem - not that a program came bundled with software. Such a basic fact conveniently ignored because Apple Bad.

> Without Internet Explorer Windows is literally just a piece of software.

A piece of software that can do many things - an iPhone without apps just doesn't work. Apps run everything - from making phone calls to keeping notes. Windows without internet can still be used. Bad analogy.

Internet Explorer didn't have dominant market share; Windows did. You say the problem wasn't that a program came bundled with software, but that was literally the heart of the antitrust action: the government contended that Microsoft was using their defacto operating system monopoly of Windows to give IE a leg up on non-bundled competitors.

> An iPhone without apps just doesn't work.

Sure, but an iPhone without an App Store works fine -- that was literally the way the first iPhone shipped, remember? -- so I'm not quite sure your analogy is a slam dunk here. :)

The iPhone without an App Store doesn’t work fine to install software.

Remember - they originally said - just use web apps, but developers demanded a way to install software, and Apple developed the App Store in response to that demand.