DOJ’s iPhone Monopoly Case Moves Forward

This is going to be Tim Cook’s legacy. The dismantling of Apple.

Not sure they have a monopoly based on market shares but Apple definitely does behave in multiple areas like an evil company having a monopoly.

How is a public company - look it up, *it* (not they) are entirely about something called profits... how is a "they", capable of being "evil"?

What? Why would a company not be capable of being evil?

Hate to break it to you Anonymous, but corporations are just collections of people. They have plenty of ability to be evil.

In fact every evil act I history has been done by one or more people.

Define "evil". Make sure to cover *all* angles... starting with biblical (think Satan). @gildarts, let's be clear... NOT EVERY SINGLE ACT in the entirety of history has been done by one or more people. Period. Even if you do not believe in Satan (odd, because you do believe in evil) or anything religious you *must* agree that some "acts of nature" (think whatever you believe caused to end of the dinosaur age) wasn't cause by "one or more people". Nor even a company!

If your defense of an evil multinational corporation is "it depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is," you know you're on the wrong side.

"Even if you do not believe in Satan (odd, because you do believe in evil)"

No, that's not odd at all.

Only Christians believe in evil. Read all about it

Apple does not have a smartphone monopoly.

What an odd comment thread, especially regarding the word "evil". I'm with @Plume here. But maybe it's because I'm not a native speaker. Perhaps another angle would help? Like, for example, Apple sure behaves like they're full of a**holes?

Oh, and I also don't get the hair splitting about the word monopoly. Let it be a duopoly, fine. The switching costs are so high it doesn't really matter. It's not like you can switch like you can switch your brand of potato chips. Those f*ckers need to be punished. Severely.

I was just ignoring the crank.

That's like saying that the Chevy Corvette is a monopoly. You invest all your time and money in it. You can only use Corvette parts on it, and if you want to switch to being a Ford GT guy, none of your Corvette stuff will transfer. That doesn't mean that the Corvette a monopoly though.

@DJ I can’t believe you’re making that comparison. Obviously, the switching costs are much higher in the computing world than in the auto world. (I recently switched to Honda after about 13 years with Toyota, and it was incredibly easy. Nobody told me when I was learning to drive that I’d better learn the kinds of cars that people use in the real world, like they did about operating systems and programming languages.)

"Obviously, the switching costs are much higher in the computing world than in the auto world.”

???

@DJ This is a terrible analogy.

If you buy a Corvette, you can do absolutely anything you want to it with no consequences. You can do minor things ranging from interior/exterior cosmetic modifications (by comparison I can't even change minor things about iOS appearance) to performance modifications like bolt-ons (by comparison you can't even adjust storage or RAM) to full on engine modifications (try changing the CPU on your iphone and see how that goes). This is something you can learn to do yourself, buy kits to do with pre-made instructions, or straight up pay someone else to do for a very affordable price. @Michael is right; these kinds of costs are lower (*relative to the price of the car*). A 200+ HP upgrade to a C7 stingray would run you $6-10k, which is 12-20% of the car value, with a myriad of kits online and stores near you that will do it (even Chevy dealerships!). Do you honestly think you could upgrade the CPU in your phone for $120-200? Or that any seller near you would do it? Or that Apple would be willing to do it for you? Ridiculous.

This isn't even getting into the switching costs that Michael mentioned, to also address @AS. The switching costs are ASTRONOMICALLY lower. If my whole life is on Apple, it is objectively very hard to switch to Android without suffering green bubbles, apps not existing, maybe even reduced functionality in my car thanks to the new Carplay, having to learn the ins and outs of a new OS which may take a long time (especially for older users), moving photos over, messages, everything. By comparison, if I want to switch from a Z06 to an F-Type R (comparably priced), what the hell do you mean "none of your Corvette stuff will transfer"? They drive in largely the same way, with almost no learning curve between them, you can bring your Carplay or Android Auto with you, most of your gadgets (dashcam, phone mounts, etc.) will transfer. There's practically no switching cost at all; I would much rather change my car to an entirely new brand (say Toyota to Honda) than move my phone (say flagship iPhone to flagship Pixel) and you know you would too. This isn't even getting into the insane "Corvettes part" argument. Have you even heard of an LS swap? That's one of the most popular large mods in the car industry; its like the tech industry's obsession with putting Doom in everything. People put LS engines in trucks, Miatas, Mustangs, Civics, literally anything with four wheels and a windshield. Try sticking your M4 chip in a Pixel and let me know how that goes.

There's always someone who insists on putting an analogy under a microscope. We could be talking about the laws of physics, and some Q would pop in and say to just change the gravitational constant of the universe to make it work. Sure.

The general nature of the analogy is apt for 99.99% of the population though. Most people realize that you're not going to take the custom wheels that you bought for your Corvette and slap them onto your Yugo. You can move your fuzzy dice from one mirror to the other though. Not a monopoly.

"The general nature of the analogy is apt for 99.99% of the population though"

It's not. It's a bad analogy. Phone switching costs are nothing like car switching costs, which, for most people, are zero. You sell the old car and get a new car, and then you drive the new car. The end. There are no switching costs.

Even your example doesn't make sense. When you switch cars and have custom rims for your old one, those are not "switching costs." You're just selling the custom rims with the old car. All you lose is normal depreciation. There is no switching cost associated with custom rims.

Switching costs for a car would be something like buying an electric vehicle, installing a charger at home, then buying a new electric car that doesn't work with your current charger. Then you'd also have to buy an adapter or a new charging cable. But even in this example, the cost is minuscule.

Tell me again how USB C has ruined the iPhone.

Yes, indeed—still waiting for the prognostications of The Great USB-C Backlash to come true. Think I'll be waiting a while.