The chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel said on Friday that he expects to have a final report on its probe of big technology companies and their potential breaches of antitrust law, by the “first part” of next year.
The committee has received tens of thousands of documents from Facebook Inc, Alphabet’s Google, Amazon.com Inc and Apple Inc and is expecting more material in the coming weeks, Representative David Cicilline told reporters.
“Our hope is to conclude our evidence collection end of this year, beginning of next year with the idea that we will have a final report, instead of recommendations in the first part of next year,” said Cicilline, a Democrat…
Once lauded as engines of economic growth, these companies have increasingly been on the defensive over their outsized market influence. Politicians including President Donald Trump, consumers, other firms and regulators have criticized that power.
MacDailyNews Take: Again, the real problems where too much power is concentrated and the potential for abuse of their market power is greatest is clearly Google and Facebook, not Apple.
Since Apple does not have a monopoly in any market in which they participate, there is no legal basis for action against Apple Inc.
In the case of Apple, there is no monopoly (which is legal by the way), much less monopoly abuse (which is explicitly impossible given the nonexistence of a monopoly). You cannot abuse a monopoly when you do not have a monopoly to begin with.
Worldwide smartphone OS market share, September 2019:
• Android: 76.24%
• iOS: 22.48%
It’s enough to drive us to drink (doesn’t take much) and, luckily for us, we have interns who know how to expertly TTK! Prost, everyone!
I rarely agree with the commentary here when it’s anything political, but I’m with you 100%. I’m sure most readers will agree as well.
Keep in mind this is The House that Pelosi built. Evidence of a crime is not necessary. A formal accusation is not necessary. You simply subpoena everything, texts, documents, email, recorded phone conversations, used condoms, everything. Then you start digging, ever widening your search until you find something. It doesn’t matter what it is, just as long as its something. Then you look for people to corroborate the story you’re fabricating around what you found. Then you pronounce the target guilty and with the complicity of the media you proceed to conduct a big lie campaign that would make Joseph Goebbels blush.
Apple may not be a monopoly but they have a monopoly on what software gets installed on your iOS devices, in particular the iPhone which is their biggest most successful platform which reaches more Americans than even Windows, if I’m not mistaken.
Apple has been known to censor people because they don’t like the content, such as Alex Jones.
I’m sure there’s a lot of hypocrisy filling up the trash bins outside the Cupertino HQ for House investigators to wallow in and wade through. They have got to be really good at it by this point.
Personally, I feel I have control over my privacy with big tech, (at least somewhat). I’m far more concerned with government overreach. These people never seek to make you more free, and less encumbered. They seek to make more of the things you do on a day to day basis into criminal activity. The only power they have over you is by declaring you a criminal. When they can’t find something to charge you with, they will invent it.
Apple’s lawyers better be at their Kung Fu best.
Of course, Tmac doesn’t think the people’s representatives should ever get information from anyone. Then he can bitch more about how they don’t know what they are doing. Heaven forbid that they exercise their Constitutional oversight duties.
Who has the guilty conscience?
If you’ve done nothing wrong, then show everyone and move on. Why is that too much to ask? For example, publish your tax returns like every other public servant paid by the people, and it will be very easy to prove your innocence, right? The potus would never dream of violating the crystal clear emoluments clause, would he? He would be the most transparent administration ever in history and he would be able to point to all the corrupt baddies that his three different attorney generals, not including personal fixer and foreign operative Guiliani, have put behind bars. Right? He would never have motivation to obstruct justice 11 times and counting, or to lie to reporters, or make up conspiracies about people, or retweet factually incorrect right wing bs every day, right?
Lap Dog Carlson and Mr. Vitriol Hannity will surely jump to Tim Apple’s defense too. They have such a great track record using long-standing conservative and legal principles to honestly evaluate a person’s actions and deeds without bias. When a company that makes nothing (Facebook), or 40 consumer gadgets (Apple), or data spying junk (Google) are all worth more money than god and nobody can name an alternative to their walled gardens, surely these billionaire executives can explain where all the money comes and goes. Or are you worried Apple might have to publicly acknowledge its shell companies in the Caymans and Jersey Islands? Oh goodness gracious me. The public surely wouldn’t want to know where the richest companies hide their money, now bigger piles thanks to the ridiculous 2017 election donor payback bill.
Where can I sell my iOS App other than Apple?
Where can I buy iOS Apps other than from Apple?
Most Apple customers will tell you that the walled garden is a feature we pay for.
You are free to stay in it, I want the key to my device. A built in jailbreak setting. That does not impact you at all.
It will never happen.
It could be legislated to happen.
The garden becomes more like a “Walled Ghetto.” This is something Apple should understand. It limits diversity. It allows only Apple approved software. It stifles innovation, caters to Apple’s approved methods. Old ideas linger.
As MDN repeated states, Apple should allow people to select a professional mode over safety or simple mode. Then if you install software from a vendor that has not been vetted by Apple, you are warned… just like on the Mac. Then maybe we’d have things like BBEDIT on the iPad.
Apple knows this though. It’s not a new concept to them. They will tell you its all about security and privacy, but its really about that 30% cream off the top of developer sales.
Whenever Tim Cook says “privacy,” stop and think about what he really might be worried about. For instance, when he comes out against Facebook’s cryptocurrency, a close examination shows that the currency will compete with Apple Cash and Apple Pay and provide more privacy.
Google and f@cebook are data-mining whores….Amazon knows me because I’ve been a customer for more than 20 years, Apple does not make a living at data-mining though they obviously know their customers well….