Apple’s ‘silver platter’ monopoly…
Great article (via Daring Fireball) giving us a new angle on Apple’s supposed ‘monopoly’.
http://www.loper-os.org/?p=132The choice quote: “Jobs did not engage in underhanded business practices to create his monopolies. They were handed to him on a silver platter.” I’d still argue that Apple doesn’t have a monopoly, as you don’t ‘have’ to use their products if you don’t want to, but if you feel compelled to use a company’s products because you like to use them, even when every friend, work colleague and media correspondent tells you not to, your decision is based on choice and desire for the best product, not because you’ve had that choice narrowed by people saying ‘you must choose Microsoft’. In this scenario, are Microsoft and their partners not the ultimate ‘walled garden’? Surely if you choose Microsoft and their inferior products, not because you desire them, but because you are forced to, that is the walking-definition of a monopoly?
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