“Apple Maps is on a tear, taking market share from Google Maps according to new comScore data. Apple fans will cheer, but will U.S. and European antitrust authorities?,” Matt Asay wonders for ReadWrite. “Given the similarities to Microsoft’s illegal tying of Internet Explorer into Windows back in the late 1990s, Apple may be setting itself up for an antitrust lawsuit.”
“To be sure, Apple has introduced significant improvements to its Maps product in the last year. But let’s not kid ourselves: Apple isn’t increasingly winning over maps users because of its product,” Asay writes. “It’s winning over new Maps users because it’s product is tightly integrated into iOS, according to Ben Wood, mobile analyst for CCS Insight: ‘On an iPhone all roads lead to Apple’s maps. They’re putting this front and centre for users.'”
“Apple’s tying of Maps to iOS would almost certainly have run afoul of U.S. and European antitrust laws 10 years ago. Today, it’s not so clear. Whereas a strong case can be made that Apple’s bundling of Maps with iOS harms competition by effectively blocking Google Maps and other contenders from its platform, one can also counter that great innovations are enabled by the practice,” Asay writes. “While Microsoft was adjudged to be a monopolist, it wasn’t a court that stripped it of its market power. It was Apple and the free market. Which is exactly as it should be, to my mind.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Unfortunately, common sense didn’t stop the U.S. DOJ from wrongly assailing Apple in order to further strengthen Amazon’s already pervasive domination of the e-book market, so there’s no guarantee the DOJ won’t commit yet another random act of stupidity.
In this case it should be clear: Google made their own bed, now they can lie in it.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Why Apple included Maps in OS X Mavericks – November 12, 2013
Apple Maps makes killer comeback as Google Maps loses access to world’s most desirable mobile customers – November 12, 2013
Apple Maps puts the hurt on Google Maps – November 11, 2013
WIth iOS 7, Apple’s Maps has arrived; it’s now better than Google Maps – September 25, 2013
