> Now we want to talk about apps and phones. If you have a "phone" -- the broad product definition you want to use -- then do you have competition for app stores?
Apple's argument, which I tend to agree with, is that the user does have a choice of app store, which they make by buying an iPhone instead of an Android phone (or a Xiaomi phone, or a Kindle, or whatever).
The reason I agree with this is that, for me, the App Store and how it's handled is one of the big draws of the iPhone; I've heard a lot fewer stories about malicious software, re-uploaded software with malware installed, software that walks you through the process of enabling sideloading or enabling adb connections so that you can install this one thing one time, all of which users might have to deal with without necessarily understanding the repercussions of what they're doing.
So once you've purchased an iPhone you don't have a choice of App Store, but you do make that choice, arguably, when you purchase your phone. The biggest argument against this is that if you've already invested a lot into apps on the App Store, then there's not a lot of option to switch app stores, but there is still a choice that users can make.
> The strongest argument that this isn't the case is that it's common for people to buy multiple different consoles at once, so if the customer can't get a game on one console, they could still get the same game on another one because they actually own multiple consoles at the same time.
I'm not sure this is actually the case for most people. I don't think the typical person is going to spend, for example, $600 on a Playstation 5, and then decide that they don't like how Sony handles their store so they go and buy an XBox Series X for another $600 so that they can get the best of both worlds, or get access to a different store with different policies.