Microsoft was also bundling. E.g. Internet Explorer.
To its (very slight) credit, Apple doesn't ship the iPad with iBooks installed by default.
Their control of the App Store is perhaps more-problematic (Microsoft couldn't actually stop competitors from using those undocumented APIs, once discovered). But at the same time, Apple doesn't dominate the mobile market like what Microsoft had on the desktop. (Similarly --obligatory bad-car-analogy-- auto companies exercise far more control over their dealership networks than Microsoft ever did over its resellers. But the FTC/EU took issue with Microsoft because of its monopoly status.)
Also, there's always the inconsistent treatment of game consoles to consider. The FTC has never investigated a dominant console supplier for not allowing any app from any developer onto their console. And Apple's App Store is wide open when viewed through the lens of that market.
They don't have it pre-installed, but as soon as you open the App Store for the first time you get a system alert message prompting you to download iBooks.
Seems like maybe iBooks was intended to be a "first class" app but they couldn't make the schedule to make the OS image, so they decided to distribute it over iTunes.
And perhaps they wanted to allow Kindle etc on the store without raising the controversy of why they don't block them since they duplicate built-in functionality.
I would sure want the luxury of instantly pushing out a minor update to all users of the app rather than having to wait months if I was internally developing a first party app.
Also once Microsoft found that their undocumented APIs were in widespread use, the still continued to support them or created shims that recognized certain applications and made sure their still worked.
Exactly what I was thinking while reading this article. Taking advantage of control of one market to push it's own products in favor of competitors in another market.
When is Apple going to be investigated by the US government for anti-competitive behavior?
Or maybe this rule only applies to monopolies?