I am sorry Apple, it’s true, you are a monopoly

What’s that you say? It can’t be possible! 9% market share in PCs! Symbian has them crushed in market share in the smart phone market. There’s no monopoly here! I am afraid so…

In economics, a monopoly exists when a specified individual or an enterprise has sufficient control over a particular product or service to determine significantly the terms on which other individuals shall have access to it. Monopolies are thus characterized by a lack of economic competition for the good or service that they provide and a lack of viable substitute goods. – From Wikipedia

I am, of course, NOT a lawyer, have no legal training, and this is purely a common sense interpretation of the law. The situation occurred when Apple opened up the iPhone to external developers. They created a marketplace that allows 3rd parties to develop Applications for a platform, the iPhone. If Apple had not decided to create it’s own applications for that platform, it might be a different story. But in this particular case, Apple is now competing with other developers on the iPhone. This is no different than if they decided the would not allow Firefox to work on OS X.

It doesn’t matter that Apple doesn’t charge for these applications, ask Microsoft. Bundling, Tying, all of these practices come into play when you have a system, that you allow others to develop on, and you prevent them from creating applications that compete with your own for competitive reasons. (Google Voice anyone?)

I am afraid that when this comes up, and more high profile applications get rejected because they duplicate (a nice way to say compete with) Apple’s bundled software, the castle of Apple might start to shake under the weight of it’s own defenses.

I am sure they feel quite good about their place right now, but if history has proven anything, even Microsoft’s money doesn’t do much good when fighting the government. And if you thought Bill Gates was smug answering questions to the house committee, wait until Steve Jobs shoes up in sneakers and a turtle neck.

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