“The US Federal Trade Commission launched an investigation into Apple, focusing on potential antitrust violations in their music business,” Chris DeMuth Jr. writes for Seeking Alpha. “Congressional pressure is rising on the FTC to act on their findings. If the US brings a case against Apple, it will focus on anticompetitive practices aimed against Spotify. Apple’s view is that they do not have an obligation to avoid disadvantaging competitors on their platform. The US DoJ and many in congress disagree.”
“What do they object to? One problem is when Apple ties products such as Apple Music and iOS together in order to monopolize one or both product markets. For example, Apple ties the App Store to its payment system, allowing it to price beneath Spotify and preventing Spotify from offering discounts through iOS.,” DeMuth Jr. writes. “The DoJ is also concerned that Apple blocks Spotify from updating iOS using consumers with information about discounts.”
Full article, with DeMuth Jr.’s “trial of the century” disclaimer, here.
MacDailyNews Take: Blah, blah, blabity-blah-blah.
Once again, these are Apple’s platforms, built from the ground up. Apple owns them. Hence, Apple can charge what they like for the use of their App Store infrastructure.
Anyone who doesn’t like it, including Spotify or… oh, we don’t know, the developers of the “Make Me Indian” app 😉 can make their own smartphone platform or go to other smartphone platforms, including one with 86.2% market share as measured by units shipped which — drumroll, please — neatly negates any and all imperiously vapid antitrust claims of Apple having a “monopoly” in smartphones.
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s App Store anti-competitive? Spotify and Elizabeth Warren think so – July 15, 2016
Elizabeth Warren accuses Apple of monopolistic-like actions; Spotify concurs – June 29, 2016
This is something to be expected with the US government. They have been causing trouble like this since day one. Think of all of the treaties they broke with the Native Americans. Think of the time they illegally annexed the Kingdom of Hawaii, and let us not forget the many peaceful countries that the US has invaded strictly for their own benefit. Apple will be the next one to be screwed over by America’s policies of they aren’t careful…
This has to do with the fact that the government is de-facto owned by Google which has hundreds of meetings with the Obama administration, as well as other government bureaucrats. Eric Schmidt directly called Clinton’s office to solve Google issues. And now he main campaign organizer for Clinton. Eric Schmidt also heads a special commission Pentagon, and is engaged in many activities within the government.
As Clinton’s electronic mails show, Google and StateDep collaborated on the maniacal neolib “regime change” policies in Libya and Syria, which were destroyed by manipulated “rebellions” which actually were proxy wars with the use of Wahhabi/Salafist terrorists (the ideology behind Al-Qaeda, Daesh/ISIS, Boko Haram). Google’s top manager came to the company after being Clinton’s deputy in StateDep, so no wonder.
Dress, Google may very well have excessive influences within the current administration. But I can’t take you seriously when your use terms like “maniacal neolib” and attempt to attach regime change to the current administration. In modern times, the U.S. focus on regime change clearly started with Bush. You can trace most of the current unrest to that ill-considered effort by Bush, Cheney, and the rest of that group. Libya is a different situation, but one that started decades ago.
I am no great fan of the current administration. I expected better. But I am damned tired of the extremist viewpoints on this forum blaming everything on the left or right, as if either party deserves all of the blame (or whatever tiny amount of credit might exist). Both parties have their issues, both have contributed to chronic overspending for years, and both are influenced way too much by the powerful and wealthy, including corporate management. But the right is clearly the party of outsized defense spending and warmongering. When you build all of those technological instruments of destruction, someone will eventually find a reason to use them. And that, in turn, enriches the military-industrial complex that produces additional units for the war and develops the next generation of devices for the next…inevitable…war.
There is no conspiracies about the “regime change” policy. This what happened in Lybia, in Ukraine and almost happened in Syria, in all of those cases StateDep/CIA actively participated.
*are
Get some help. Psychotropics may work for you.
Poor Germany. America benefitted from invading, and Japan! What did they ever do to us?
TFB
Make me Indian app? How unbecoming. How juvenile. How Trumpian!
Never let competitor’s in your store, Apple’s first mistake.
The century is still young and G.W.Bush is still alive. Oh to get that slime to a court of law is dream, but not likely as long as he stays behind the feathered curtain, you know the one with eagle feathers on the inside to show the nation how brave they are, and chicken feathers on the outside to show how they really are.
At any rate, that would be a great trial.
Brilliant, #MyStupidGovernment. Waste time and money persecuting my country’s greatest country. Is this persecution about protection money? Is that what you PoliTards call it these days? So used to being puppeted by the Corporatocracy that you want to abuse Apple into doing the same? Or maybe you really are just stupid, both party’s worth. 😛
*sigh* Again a correction:
Waste time and money persecuting my country’s greatest COMPANY.
It’s 9:49 pm here and I have not had dinner. No sugar in my brain. Too high on caffeine to care…
This reminds me of the persecution of TT in Atlas Shrugged.
“Anyone who doesn’t like it, can make their own smartphone platform”
That’s not really a feasible attitude, especially since every area of life is now dominated by computer platforms, and there is only a few feasible platforms. What’s next, you can’t order a product online unless Apple, Google or Microsoft get a cut?