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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by freedomben on Thursday March 21, 2024 @12:49PM (#39781082)
Imagine you're an Apple lawyer, and you're explaining to the regulators that you are facing serious competition. You gonna send them that link?
Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by samatman on Thursday March 21, 2024 @01:42PM (#39781869)
I didn't say Linux was especially good competition for iOS.

But unless you can demonstrate that it sucks because Apple is doing something which qualifies as restraint-of-trade, which I would suggest is obviously not the case, that doesn't matter.

Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by dragonwriter on Thursday March 21, 2024 @01:45PM (#39781913)
It actually does matter if it has no practical bearing on Apple’s market (most easily seen in pricing) power.

Theoretical competition is not sufficient to demonstrate absence of a monopoly.

Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by samatman on Thursday March 21, 2024 @06:46PM (#39785368)
It's not theoretical competition. It's actual competition, which is bad. These are not the same thing.

The doctrine that it's your fault if your competitors suck makes no sense. It's weaponized tall-poppy syndrome.

Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by dragonwriter on Thursday March 21, 2024 @07:04PM (#39785504)
That's not the doctrine.

The doctrine is that you can't exercise monopoly power in certain ways. Monopoly power is an empirical question, and does not turn on merely whether it is possible to describe a market in which another product exists, but whether that is a real market in which the products are in fact competitive.

But even if you have monopoly power, if you aren't illegally exercising it, you aren't in trouble. So you aren't punished for being an empirical monopoly.