Re:Google and Apple attacked on app store 'monopoly'
by dageshi on Saturday April 24, 2021 @08:35AM
(#26924435)
Microsoft low balled Netscape when they tried to buy them and then set out to crush them anyway with IE, it was largely seen as bullying behaviour. Google/Apple don't really do this, they buy what they see as promising companies with good ideas and pay plenty for them, so does Facebook with social.
So the difference is, Google/Apple never really look like bullies the way MS did, instead they look like companies innovating.
For the most part in mobile google just brought its already successful products to android, it hasn't from what I call explicitly tried to kill an already successful product in another niche? Well maybe with its various "social" attempts but they failed so bad it never became an issue.
Re:Google and Apple attacked on app store 'monopoly'
by jsnell on Saturday April 24, 2021 @08:57AM
(#26924546)
Hasn't the EU already imposed at least as many restrictions on Android than they ever did on Windows? The search engine choice screen, cancellation of anti-forking agreements, and unbundling search/browser from the rest of the apps and services.
But I do find it crazy how utterly disinterested they were with Apple for a decade, and how limited the current investigation into just in app purchases is.
This. How come the authorities cracked down hard on Microsoft in the 90's and early 2000's for exactly this but aren't doing the same with Apple and Google now?
I remember the days when, at least in the EU, due to antitrust laws, Windows XP had to come without Windows Media Player and without Internet Explorer preinstalled[1], which made for a rough out of the box experience for newbie users if they just wanted to quickly browse the web or play their "totally legit" mp3s after installing it, but it served to give competing apps and browsers a fighting chance and not allow Microsoft to entrench its monopoly further.
By the same logic, why can't we force Google/Apple to not prioritize their own apps and services on their platforms against their competitors?
[1]https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=144651...