Microsoft was hit with monopoly on browser even though you can install anything or go buy a Mac.

But when you control a huge portion of the PC market, and you put it in by default, you are cascading your monopolistic benefits down to installed software.

Apple does not have complete domination of smartphone across all demographics, but they do have domination in many segments.

For example, it is estimated that around 88% of teenagers have iPhones. Apple makes it very hard to leave their ecosystem because of iMessage, Facetime, and ALL of your digital purchases being tied to their ecosystem. So, what happens when all those teens grow up? Do we really think they will leave Apple ecosystem?

What cascades from that is a long term digital domination strategy, and when you have that only one digital store option, now you have a monopoly argument.

Apple has about half the phone OS market, with Android the other half.

[1] https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/mobile/worldwide

- You agree to the letter of the ToS when you click "I Agree" when you set up the iPhone,

- You also already agree to the spirit of the App Store when you buy it. After all, it's not some big secret

- You can get by with webapps for the most part anyway

- You can buy an Android, a flip phone, or pull a power move and have no phone

Buying an iPhone and then demanding that it has to work differently is acting in bad faith IMO.

Buying something used to mean something. If you're still beholden by company rules of a product you _bought_, you have been leasing/renting it.

If I buy a house from a builder, and it came with a requirement that you can only use Amazon Ring cameras, or builder-approved groceries - you'd be pretty pissed.

But you're right, maybe we should invent a new word for a purchase that is encumbered by legal agreements or subscriptions.

Furthermore, in the US (and some other countries), you don’t _actually_ own a house or it’s land. you own the rights to that house (a deed) as long as you continue paying your property taxes. see what happens when you stop paying uncle sam… it’s kind of like a subscription lol.

As a developer, there is no choice. Apple should not be able to abuse their dominant position.

These companies have been dominating the landscape for decades now, most likely for longer than most app developers have been app developers. As a developer, there's definitely a choice: don't make an iPhone app; don't make an app at all. Make something else.

If you say you want access to the walled garden because that's where the people are, then consider that they are in there because they like the walls. From this point of view, you don't have a right to demand that the walled garden have free entrance.

there are other points of view, including one that monopolies should be illegal

I disagree there. Most people I know who have an iPhone didn't choose Apple because they like walls. There are many other reasons to choose Apple other than "I like getting screwed by TooBigTech".

I reject that argument.

For start ToS may have unenforceable claims (if someone puts that I agree to give all things I own to them into ToS it has zero effect).

Also, at this point I dispute that ToS clickery should be treated as agreeing to them. "I have read and agree with ToS" is a blatant lie in at least in the first half.

Now why would Apple do this? Because they have hobbled Safari so that it does not have modern web APIs which would allow web developers to create web-apps that use APIs that are only allowed on App-store apps on IOS devices.

This forces developers to either make an app for the App-store, or don't have any IOS users.

This is one of many reasons Apple is being sued by the DOJ - because they won't allow any other browser engines on IOS, at least not in the US, the EU slapped them on the wrist and now it's allowed there.

Safari is the current worst web browser in terms of features and bugs, and Apple wants to keep it this way for no better reason but greed. They want to push people to make App-store apps, which they can extract 30% revenue from.

That is anti-competitive, and monopolistic behavior.

Sure it's their car and they can do whatever they want with it, but consumers are losing choices - which is what anti-monopoly rules are for. Say, Michelin or Pirelli tires are strictly better but Tesla doing this harms consumer choice and that's why it is bad.

Imagine if this were extended to Tesla branded chargers. Or Tesla branded paint. It's your damn car so you should be allowed to do whatever you want with it.

But if someone then bought a Tesla the day after, they'd have far less right to be outraged.

And if the new tires & paint were integral to fundamental value-add of the car (the analogy breaks down here), then there's just zero grounds for it.

if tesla mandated tesla-only tires since day one (2012?), and they claimed it’s a perk/feature of the car, AND i bought the car anyway. Did i as a consumer not sign up for that?? There is more than 1 car manufacture after all.

None of the ios consumers are hoodwinked and apple offers free returns within 2 week in the US. The locked-down app store has been apples way since (almost) day one. Consumers voted with their wallets to not buy an android phone. I think that’s the difference?

IF android didn’t exist it wound be a different story, and it would also be a missing opportunity in the phone market.

By this logic, there is also no requirement for one to eat and breathe, anyone can simply stop. The problem is the consequences.

Building an iOS app is requirement if you want to provide lots of services and compete on lots of market. The mobile phone OS landscape has become a duopoly, and society is free to impose certain obligations on those companies.

Either this is bad faith, or you are uninformed.

> that's the cost of doing business.

All the question is there. Is that the cost of doing business, or is Apple abusing their dominant position?

Because you've redefined the market.

Which part of this article quote don't you understand?

> but Apple’s monopoly over iOS app distribution means