U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone monopoly

Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by supportengineer on Thursday March 21, 2024 @01:41PM (#39781857)

This makes me so angry. You have a choice in the market! Everything on this list is a feature which I am choosing as the customer. If I didn't want these features and benefits then I would make a different choice as a consumer. As a consumer I am not a victim. I can choose between iOS, Android, or something else.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by skyyler on Thursday March 21, 2024 @01:46PM (#39781931)

I wonder if people made comments like these in support of Internet Explorer when Microsoft was dealing with antitrust law in court.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by pchristensen on Thursday March 21, 2024 @02:51PM (#39782805)

You can look at adoption rates of IE vs Firefox and Chrome, and compare them to iOS vs Android.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by foooorsyth on Thursday March 21, 2024 @02:51PM (#39782804)

Uh, yeah they did. Many people thought at that time that DOJ was overstepping. Many still do. In hindsight, Microsoft’s behavior at the time seems like small potatoes compared to the ecosystem protection that occurs today.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by baq on Thursday March 21, 2024 @01:47PM (#39781952)

It isn't about you, it's about me who can't install iMessage on an Andorid phone or a Linux desktop and participate in your group chats in reasonable capacity.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by supportengineer on Thursday March 21, 2024 @01:50PM (#39781982)

One question: Who owns iMessage? Who pays to run the servers? Who pays for the bandwidth?

Do you allow your neighbors to use your yard and driveway that you pay for?

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by baq on Thursday March 21, 2024 @02:21PM (#39782394)

I postulate people would gladly pay a cup of coffee's worth for a first party app and/or subscription. Certainly easier than shelling out a few hundred bucks for an iDevice.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by criddell on Thursday March 21, 2024 @02:31PM (#39782539)

That’s kind of what I think. Make an iCloud subscription tier that includes access to messages and then include it in the web-browser version of iCloud and make an Android app for messages. I can’t imagine it would have to cost much more than $10-$15.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by warkdarrior on Thursday March 21, 2024 @04:30PM (#39783981)

This would be an Apple service. It'd cost $99/month to view the text of messages on non-iPhone devices, and an additional $99/month to view any photos/videos/emojis attached to messages.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by Apocryphon on Thursday March 21, 2024 @06:25PM (#39785189)

The base plan for iCloud+ is 99 cents a month and the next tier is $2.99, they're pretty reasonable about these services.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by skeaker on Thursday March 21, 2024 @01:54PM (#39782024)

If I had billions of dollars and a yard the size of a small country I probably wouldn't mind...

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by wiseowise on Thursday March 21, 2024 @06:32PM (#39785252)

> Who pays to run the servers? Who pays for the bandwidth?

I f%$@ing do. I paid when I bought an iPhone, Mac and iPad.

And even if it’s not enough - provide it as a service for a fee.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by lijok on Thursday March 21, 2024 @03:30PM (#39783292)

You're not buying a literal apple. Purchasing context does not stop at point of sale.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by jobs_throwaway on Thursday March 21, 2024 @01:46PM (#39781929)

You are specifically choosing to not have message interoperability? Why?

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by supportengineer on Thursday March 21, 2024 @01:49PM (#39781968)

We have message interoperability already. I can install any messenger of my choosing. I can install WeChat, Facebook Messenger, Slack, Signal, etc, etc.

But I don't need any of those because 99% of the people I communicate with are on iMessage.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by skeaker on Thursday March 21, 2024 @01:55PM (#39782039)

And again, you choose to not be able to communicate with that 1% over iMessage why? It sounds like being able to do so would only benefit you.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by supportengineer on Thursday March 21, 2024 @02:07PM (#39782188)

I actually offered to buy that person an iPhone. But regardless, no one is a victim here.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by skeaker on Thursday March 21, 2024 @02:26PM (#39782456)

Seems it would have costed you a lot less if Apple just didn't arbitrarily block that person in the first place.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by jgwil2 on Thursday March 21, 2024 @04:19PM (#39783864)

If that person had taken you up on that offer, you would literally be a victim of their anticompetitive practices.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by dleink on Thursday March 21, 2024 @02:20PM (#39782381)

Android has a 70% global market share. You really only communicate with one person of that 70%?

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by mattl on Thursday March 21, 2024 @03:52PM (#39783563)

Everyone I communicate with who has an Android device has WhatsApp or Signal installed. Same is true of 99% of iPhone users.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by tick_tock_tick on Thursday March 21, 2024 @02:43PM (#39782687)

Many victim are adamant that they are not actually a victim no matter what evidence is provided. Luckily anti-trust law doesn't care about your opinion.

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Re:U.S. sues Apple, accusing it of maintaining an iPhone mon... by 8fingerlouie on Friday March 22, 2024 @03:53AM (#39788326)

But are you really a victim ?

While the smartphone market is not exactly a broad selection of competing standards, you can chose between Android and iPhone, and over time they've more or less come to represent opposing poles, where Android initially embraced openness and iPhone was the walled garden.

People picked based on preferences, but it's not like any of the platforms lock you in. They even have tools to facilitate easy switching between platforms.

Many companies, especially in highly regulated industries, specifically pick iPhone over Android for the ability to lock down the device. In my industry, our IT department has essentially given up getting Android "certified" to comply with regulations.

Apple recently opened up the App Store in the EU, in theory allowing 3rd party stores, but despite almost everybody i know using iPhones, i have yet to see anything 3rd party installed.

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