It’s not about blame, the point of anti trust and competition laws is just that, maximize competition and consumer surplus. Yes that inherently penalizes the most successful companies we collectively as a society judged that to be a fair bargain.
> The culprit certainly isn't Apple. They aren't a bank.
Sure, it’s easier to go after Apple not banks, though.
> have a great variety of devices to choose from
Physical hardware sure. Effectively there is no choice when it comes to software though.
> device they can get at whatever price they deem reasonable and affordable
Sure, but again physical hardware is not whats being discussed here. All major device manufacturers make it either were hard or impossible to install alternative operating systems (especially that got much worse for Android devices over the years).
> can't figure out how to make money without depending on Apple? A
When it comes to certain sectors that’s true. Or rather you are supposed to pay a very significant proportion of your revenue as rent to Apple to for very little in return (Apple benefits almost as much from third party developers as developers do from Apple).
> Apple has no unfair advantage against the competition, except for the incompetence of said competition
Yeah, that how most monopolies work. They are just outright better than their competition until they are in a dominant position and can get a higher proportion of the pie because they ran all the competitors out of business. That’s exactly when regulators should intervene to make the market more efficient.
Based on empirical evidence free/efficient markets can almost never exist without regulation.
It’s not about blame, the point of anti trust and competition laws is just that, maximize competition and consumer surplus. Yes that inherently penalizes the most successful companies we collectively as a society judged that to be a fair bargain.
> The culprit certainly isn't Apple. They aren't a bank.
Sure, it’s easier to go after Apple not banks, though.
> have a great variety of devices to choose from
Physical hardware sure. Effectively there is no choice when it comes to software though.
> device they can get at whatever price they deem reasonable and affordable
Sure, but again physical hardware is not whats being discussed here. All major device manufacturers make it either were hard or impossible to install alternative operating systems (especially that got much worse for Android devices over the years).
> can't figure out how to make money without depending on Apple? A
When it comes to certain sectors that’s true. Or rather you are supposed to pay a very significant proportion of your revenue as rent to Apple to for very little in return (Apple benefits almost as much from third party developers as developers do from Apple).
> Apple has no unfair advantage against the competition, except for the incompetence of said competition
Yeah, that how most monopolies work. They are just outright better than their competition until they are in a dominant position and can get a higher proportion of the pie because they ran all the competitors out of business. That’s exactly when regulators should intervene to make the market more efficient.
Based on empirical evidence free/efficient markets can almost never exist without regulation.