As the U.S., U.K., Germany, E.U., etc. look to rein in “Big Tech,” antitrust and regulatory concerns have been weighing on Apple stock.
Patrick Seitz for Investor’s Business Daily:
On Monday, Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives attempted to quantify the impact of those investor worries on Apple stock.
“We believe right now there is roughly a $20 per share overhang on Apple’s stock due to antitrust and regulatory concerns on the Street,” Ives said in a note to clients.
“With the drumbeat getting louder with the Beltway and Brussels around Big Tech, with Apple caught up in the crossfire, there are clearly some worries on the Street weighing on shares,” Ives said. Apple and the FANG stocks are in the regulatory crosshairs in both the U.S. and Europe.
For now, regulatory worries are a “containable headline risk” for Apple and Big Tech, Ives said.
But the appointment of legal scholar and Big Tech critic Lina Khan to head the Federal Trade Commission has rattled Apple and other major tech firms, Ives said.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple does not have a monopoly – not even close – in any market in which it competes.
Apple might not have the market share to be considered a monopoly, but I feel certain Apple is going to get screwed over just the same. That’s just Apple’s bad luck. There are too many people looking to ruin Apple’s iOS’s walled ecosystem and those numbers will eventually turn iOS into an open source app store like Android. I honestly don’t understand what the big deal is about Apple controlling its own App Store. You would think if consumers or developers didn’t like the way it is being run, they could just leave the App Store defect to Android OS. I had always thought that only companies with dominant market share could be considered monopolies, but I guess I was wrong. Apple should have been a little more greedy in terms of market share. Now it will have nothing worthwhile. Being told how to run its own iOS ecosystem and low market share. Someone always has a way to easily devalue Apple. Apple establishes a solid ecosystem by their own effort and now some a-holes want to ruin it. Absolutely sickening.
I would hate to own a store and then have some people come and tell me I have to sell certain products. That’s almost sounds like a mob shakedown. I go to some local stores and they have signs that say they only accept cash. I’m sure not going to argue with them about that. Sure, I’d rather pay by credit card, but I can always go to some other store that does accept credit card. I sure wouldn’t picket outside of that store saying they were unfair and should be forced to accept credit cards. Don’t be a dick and simply don’t patronize the store if you don’t like their policy.
You answered your own complaint with “I can always go to some other store”. You CAN’T do that if your phone has a two year contract. Nor can you if all the other stores agree not to sell the product you want.
For example: 512 GB of flash memory from Scandisk costs $60. But if you want it built into your iPhone, its $300 from Apple. And to keep you from just buying the Scandisk instead, they make the iPhone’s file system a train wreck and keep the SD card reader on a clumsy dongle. An iPhone 12’s video camera can fill 512 GB in four hours. An ordinary wedding can produce more footage then this, and Apple advertises this use. But the product is severely hobbled by Apple’s design choices that exist only to extort you for ram.
I don’t see how anyone familiar with Apple’s history can have any faith that the magical free market fairies will solve anything. They didn’t when Apple was the victim, and they won’t now.
I should explain:
If you are shooting video to an SD card, and it fills up, you can just eject it and put in another one. This takes 5 seconds. But if you are shooting with an iPhone, you are stuck. It can take hours to get footage transferred to anything else. The kind of events that you shoot with a phone don’t wait for you to do this.
The fact that other companies hobble you in the same way does not justify this design behavior. This isn’t about the technical definition of “Monopoly”. It is about companies needlessly restricting their customers.
The real issue isn’t about Apple having and controlling its own store. It’s about blocking the existence of other stores that could sell 3rd party iOS Apps. They own neither the devices nor the 3rd party Apps, and that’s why it’s anticompetitive.
How else could it be done?
-Lease, don’t sell, the devices.
– Do not offer third party Apps, or Apple buys them outright.
The only real defense against this sort of accusation is to satisfy your customers. If we feel locked in and taken advantage of we aren’t going to defend you. Monopolies aren’t about market share, but the ability to manipulate customers with artificial barriers.
We get it Tau. You want Apple to sell you an iPhone with all the features you want, and for half the price…em.. Don’t hold your breath.
In Russia, best product buys you.