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A comment on Hotel booking sites overcharge Bay Area customers. Parent comment

Re:Hotel booking sites overcharge Bay Area customers by janalsncm on Tuesday January 14, 2025 @08:10PM (#42706155)
If that were a winning argument there would be a lot less fleecing happening. In reality there may be only one ISP, one airline with flights to where you need to go, two major smartphone OSes, three wireless carriers, one grocery store nearby, etc.

Vendor lockin is also a thing. Even if AWS is more expensive, the cost to move elsewhere can be prohibitively high.

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Re:Hotel booking sites overcharge Bay Area customers by ericmay on Wednesday January 15, 2025 @06:19AM (#42709695)
It’s a winning argument still. Don’t mistake it with lack of competition in a market. Even ISPs have a limit on fleecing customers before people get really fed up with it and nationalize their business or provide funds for competitors.

We tend to look at these things through a static lens “two major smartphone OSs” and not over longer periods of time, which is a problem in framing discussion. When Ford built their car there was approximately just one car (one OS). If you paused time there you’d apply the argument you’re making to Ford. But over the longer arc of time you’d have been incorrect.

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