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US sues Apple for illegal monopoly over smartphones (www.theverge.com)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The US Department of Justice and 16 state and district attorneys general accused Apple of operating an illegal monopoly in the smartphone market in a new antitrust lawsuit. The DOJ and states are accusing Apple of driving up prices for consumers and developers at the expense of making users more reliant on its iPhones.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I'm always impressed how far corporations managed to convince people to be loyal to them. Not saying it's a person's fault, I used to fall pretty badly for corporate bullshit myself.

The whole "walled garden" concept is inherently anti-consumer. Have you ever asked yourself why there hasn't been any real innovation in the phone/smartwatch fields for years now. Or why phones aren't cheap to fix anymore. Or why battery life gets so bad after two or so years that most people are forced to buy a new one.

Things don't have to be this way. We can have well designed products that work together without all the lock in.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I completely disagree. As long as there are valid choices, an option to choose a walled garden has benefits. It’s only a problem when that’s your only realistic choice. In this case, as long as Android is common enough to be a valid choice and there are multiple Android manufacturers, then you really don’t see any of these problems.

If you don’t think there’s any innovation in phones, either

phones are maturing. They are very powerful and do a lot: revolutionary change is much less likely now
news fatigue. There are significant improvements in every model; I bet your self from ten years ago would be amazed. Also it’s silly to expect revolutionary change every year. Look less often

Or why battery life gets so bad after two or so years that most people are forced to buy a new one.

iPhones seem to have better battery life. Come on over to the dark side
I gave my two year old iPhone to my teen and battery health was still high eighties percent
it’s really not that expensive to replace a battery. I mean, it might be in the latest models, but I historically pay Apple to do it after 2-3 years (so I can give it to my kid with full battery health) and it really doesn’t seem any more expensive after inflation than it’s been for decades. And there are cheaper places that can do it. While it’s a little frustrating that it’s difficult to do yourself, it’s just not put that bad

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Your first point is fair, and I'm not really sure if it's just the technology maturing or a symptom of stifled innovation. Personally, I think there are still innovations to be made in this space, even big ones. But it's not just Apple's fault. The duopoly of iOS and Android has completely cornered the international market, new players have almost no chance, and the 30% cut app developers have to give Apple or Google puts them at a big disadvantage. I think a shakeup in the phone market would be very good for consumers.

iPhones seem to have better battery life.

I just have annecdotal evidence from people I know with iPhones (and mine, too, though it has been a while). It seemed to me, at least, that Apple phones tend to slow down quite a bit after a few years, and they start having battery problems. Some people I know seem to have gotten lucky with the battery thing, others not so much. But if it works well for you, then great!

More importantly, the "garden" is not the problem. If someone chooses to, they should be able to only use Apple products, download only Apps from the Appstore, and trust Apple with their data. It is the "walled" part of the deal which is the problem. Once inside, there should be an out. That is what the DOJ and the EU are trying to accomplish.