Last quarter smarphone market share for Apple was 61%. Next was Samsung at 22%. The rest were Google Motoroloa and others in the single digits. Apple is dominant but I wouldn’t say it’s a monopoly. If they get into the 90 percent plus range then maybe.
Oh and that is the US market. In China Apple ain’t so hot and it varies no doubt from country to country.
Here’s a fundamental question…
Where in the Constitution is the Executive Branch - or any Branch - explicitly empower to “bust trusts?”
Here’s a hint…it’s not.
Not quite a monopoly. But on their way. Samsung is the only significant challenger left. LG called it quits years ago
Apple has a monopoly on profits from cellphones. Everybody else is just nibbling at the edges.
That 61% market share was hard won but only in the United States and only recently. In the world market share, Apple has not topped 25%. So the facts do not support a finding of monopoly which has traditionally been a 90% or higher market share. The DOJ though found that Apple had a monopoly before in ebooks before they even STARTED selling them when Amazon which had a 90% plus market share in ebooks brought a complaint against Apple for daring to open a new ebook store with an option for authors to set a range of prices for their work when Amazon was setting prices at $9.99. Apple wanted AUTHORS to choose prices at either $9.99, $14.99, or at $29.99 for more complex works in the ebook market. Amazon accused Apple of PRICE FIXING and a Federal Judge found Apple guilty of AntoTrust and imposed a fine and put a monitor on the entire Apple business to prevent anti-competitive practices at the behest of the ACTUAL monopoly business. That judge ruled, when Apple claimed that Amazon was the true monopolistic price setter, that Amazon was not. Remember, this suit was brought before Apple sold a single ebook. The lawsuit continued while Apple had less than a 10% market share. So reality does not matter to these Leftist Judges.
Monopoly implies more than simply market share. It includes the methodology to get to that market share - and how it keeps it.
Has Apple actively manipulated markets to prevent competitive devices and operating systems off the market? Say Apple were to buy the biggest phone carriers then make them Apple devices-only... that might be evidence of monopolistic practices.