Apple's services benefit hugely from being built into the OS. If you're pro-Apple you would say that's just enjoying the benefits of vertical integration, and on the other hand if you're a regulator you would say that's illegal bundling (a la Microsoft w/ IE in the late 1990s).
Re:Apple Reports Third Quarter Results
by scarface_74 on Friday July 29, 2022 @12:46AM
(#32273232)
The "regulators" never did anything about Microsoft's bundling IE in the 90s.
The only thing they got their wrists slapped over was forcing OEMs to buy licenses for each computer shipped whether or not it ran Windows.
Do you really think that regulators in 2022 would force every platform vendor to remove all of their bundled software? They didn't do that in the 90s.
The antitrust case was only partially about the bundling, the fundamental issue was MS's abuse of their monopoly position in the US market. Apple still is nowhere near that 95+% threshold that MS achieved with Windows on desktop PCs in the 90s.
What does services as a headline signify, why would it bring on regulation (and what kind of regulation), and why is that a bad thing?