#TARGET MONOPOLY WINDOWS#
When Windows 1995 came out, the first calls regarding monopoly power came along but most people felt that the company was doing a good job. Roll the tape back 15 years and the largest tech player was Microsoft, which also was the largest company in the world in terms of overall market capitalization. This was followed by increasing legal battles with many of the companies offering Android-flavored phones, the largest one of which is the on-going country-by-country fight between Apple and Samsung. At the time when those comments were made, the iPhone was the dominant phone in the smartphone segment so this unfortunate statement could end up being the equivalent of Microsoft’s claim that it should be allowed to bundle a ham sandwich with Windows if it felt like it. Then came the revelation, through his official biographer, that Steve Jobs swore to destroy Android. Then last year, in an attempt to muscle in on the e-books market, Apple leveraged its position of strength in the tablet market to get the the publishing industry to change the way it is handling pricing of e-books, prompting the US Department of Justice and the European Union to start investigating the company on potential monopoly grounds. There is already a case wending its way through the California court system on this. It is generally assumed that the US$.99 price that has become the standard for online music tracks was something that Steve Jobs kept insisting on and that the music industry had little say in the matter. The iTunes store represents the majority of online music sales and has, as a result, been able to essentially get the music industry to agree to pricing terms that have made many artists complain. There has long been concerns on the part of the music industry about the power Apple has gained over it. … and competitors are starting to make the case for abuse of power. What generally leads companies to being accused of being a monopoly is when they act in a way that is hurting their competitors. If it did, many more companies would be investigated for monopoly power at one point or another.
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But majority ownership of a market does not a monopoly make. With near-control in spaces like digital players (the iPod), tablets (the iPad), online music (iTunes), and ultrabooks (the Macbook Air), Apple’s position as a monopoly based on technological superiority and economies of scale. The recent issues around treatment of workers at the Foxconn plants are only the beginning and one can expect Apple to fall to more and more scrutiny which begs the question as to how long it will take before the company becomes the target of an antitrust lawsuit and there may be a number of reasons for which the company could be targeted.
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Since it became the largest corporation in the world, Apple has increased its chances at becoming the target of all kinds of lawsuits and disapproval. So is it time to start thinking about Apple as a monopoly? Big target You may have thought of Apple’s continuous legal battle with Samsung but I was thinking of what led Microsoft to be declared a monopoly in 1997. The largest company in the world decides to attack a smaller player that is entering on a portion of the market where it is currently dominating.