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Comment by causality0 | Hacker News Reader

How did we go from a world where Microsoft got a half billion dollar fine for bundling a web browser with their OS to one where the vendor can stop the entire world from installing your app?

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Because Microsoft leveraged a monopoly (Windows) to gain another monopoly (browser), which is illegal. App stores didn't exist prior to Apple's. Also, Apple's store didn't work on competing phones (not that there were any at the time), nor did it work on either macOS or Windows, it only worked on Apple's iPhones. It's like Amazon controlling what Kindle books exist, or Disney controlling what you can see at Disneyworld or buy at Disney+.

So Apple leverages a monopoly (iOS) to gain another monopoly (App Store). It seems like an apples/apples comparison to me.

I would hardly call iOS a monopoly.

A monopoly with less than 50% market share?

iOS is not a monopoly

For Apple devices it is.

That’s like saying Target has a monopoly on selling Target store brand merchandise.

You keep using that word...

Monopoly does not mean “popular product” Apple isn’t even market leading, let alone dominant, and even if your dominant in a market you still might not have a monopoly.

I've been using vendor selected software repositories since before apple called them an app store and started charging everyone to use theirs. Linux has had them for years and years.

App stores did exist prior to Apple's. They just make it seem like they didn't by coining the usage of the word "app" instead of application or program. For example, the Xbox Live Marketplace launched in 2005, allowing users to purchase games, expansions, themes, backgrounds, avatars, and apps such as Netflix and Youtube. Other app stores that predate Apple's include Handango in 2003, Nokia Catalogs in 2005, and NTT DoCoMo's i-mode in 1999, the first integrated online app store for mobile phones.

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