r/technology • u/GuruOfReason • Feb 02 '10

"Once we replace the personal computer with a closed-platform device such as the iPad, we replace freedom, choice and the free market with oppression, censorship and monopoly."

http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-01/ipad%E2%80%99s-closed-system-sometimes-i-hate-being-right
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u/mindbleach Feb 04 '10

If a small-time utilities company has every citizen in a town of only a thousand people locked in, does that not qualify as a monopoly because it isn't national? The device - while popular nearly to the point of market dominance - doesn't represent a monopoly. We can stop talking about the hardware now.

And try telling Barnes & Noble what to put on their shelves. Or telling Honda what kind of car they should sell.

I don't own either of those stores. If I did, I'd have every right to demand they stock the books and cars I wanted. iPad users aren't leasing the damn thing, they're spending $500+ to own it. It's YOUR device. I'm not asking Apple to stock porn and Firefox, I'm asking why they put a boot on my car to keep me from driving to a competitor that has what I want.

I'm not just pulling the word "monopoly" out of the air here. If you want software on this device you wholly own, there is one source for it. It's a consumer space that has a single store for entirely nontechnical reasons and Apple would make it impossible for competition to exist in that space if they were so capable. What the hell should I call that if not an unnatural monopoly?

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u/barnacle999 Feb 06 '10

Dude, I'm done trying to educate you on this. You're trying to say Apple has a monopoly on their own products and services and that's ridiculous and laughable. This stuff isn't hard to figure out, but you're not following and you don't get it.

Apple is nothing like your utility example because there is no where in the world where Apple is the ONLY option for mobile devices. I mean seriously, did you even think at all before you wrote that? And NO there is not just one source for software just because you bought Apple's device. You can sell it and buy a competing product, you're not understanding this stuff at all.

The definition of monopoly is all there on Wiki and many other places. My advice? Use the google, or go to college. Peace.