U.S. hits Apple with landmark antitrust suit, accusing tech giant of stifling competition

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/apple-antitrust-lawsuit-justice-department-iphone-apple-watch-imessage/

"Apple has maintained monopoly power in the smartphone market not simply by staying ahead of the competition on the merits, but by violating federal antitrust law," Attorney General Merrick Garland said in remarks at Justice Department headquarters. "Consumers should not have to pay higher prices because companies break the law."

As a person who's worked in the software industry for decades, I'm not too concerned about some aspects of the lawsuit, but Apple has been pulling too many shenanigans for too long. Mostly, they've been absolutely shafting competing app developers and hardware makers like Samsung, Microsoft, Sony and countless small startups obliterated along the way. It's alright to protect their brand and their customers, but crushing competition--especially rivals with better ideas happens too often. Apple makes some good products, but they're not always the best and shutting out competitors artificially raises prices and delays some improvements by years.

Anyway, I'll be watching this story. What do you guys think of the DOJ and several states suing Apple?

Which I find wrong. There is nothing stopping someone from developing their own smart phone.

It's not just about smartphones. It's also their wallet, their app store, the watches. When developers want into the app store (the only one available on iPhones) they are limited to Apple Pay for in-app purchases and relatively huge transaction fees. That hurts competition and the customers.

That's just the cost of doing business. We are a soirty where most people believe that for $99 they can make millions selling wigs and leggings on Facebook.

In the summer I'm a traveling vendor. When I go somewhere to set up it isn't free and there are rules. Even in some cases what rules describing what I can do with pictures I take there.

If you want to make money you have to spend money.

OK, but relating Apple to your venue, it'd be like if the venue requires you to only accept payments through their credit cards with a 30% transaction fee. And if you sell outside their venue, you still pay them 30% of your sales. And only the attendees of the venue can use your product. Still "just the cost of doing business?"

I have an Apple iPad but Samsung for a cellphone and I like both of them.

Yes, Apple makes $billions because they make products that people want to buy. Samsung too.

I have worked in the computer software industry for years, and can confirm that just because the government is suing to stop anticompetitive activities, doesn't mean the products are bad or that consumers are totally getting hurt. It's a complicated situation, but in general, Apple is using their dominant position in the market to force things onto developers and even onto consumers who may not know better, or even care. The bottom line is that they're breaking the law, and you can't put a corporation in jail, so they have to sue.

Apple, as well as a few others, deserve
to get knocked down a notch or two.