



Source: Reuters

Comments     Threshold


RE: Funny....
By albus on 9/27/2012 9:19:32 AM , Rating: 0
Apple & Microsoft are not equal in marketshare. When Apple commands 90% of the desktop share, they will have to face it too. The total share of Apple is miniscule in the PC market.

RE: Funny....
By 3minence on 9/27/2012 9:24:38 AM , Rating: 4
It will be entertaining to watch when the EU does start to treat Apple the same.

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By Motoman on 9/27/2012 10:34:09 AM , Rating: 1
Granted that the Mac has something like 5% of the user base worldwide, and considerably less than 1% in the business world, I don't think you're ever going to have to worry about it.

RE: Funny....
By Samus on 9/27/2012 1:38:12 PM , Rating: 5
That is true, but this type of "fine" shouldn't only apply to desktop/laptop PC's.

Tablets (which have been outselling PC's lately) like the iPad and mobile products like the iPhone (the best selling smartphone in the United States) should be required to comply with rulings like this. They have millions and millions of users that are all forced to use Safari and now Apple Maps.

This is all clearly anti-competitive. It has been for years. Apple simply gets away with it because they throw out figures about developer revenue and App Store sales that make people go oooh aaaah.

RE: Funny....
By michael67 on 9/27/2012 3:43:17 PM , Rating: 2
It has noting to do with going after Microsoft again, they just want MS honor a agreement they made with the EU, and mS broke it again, and not only for a short time, but for over a year.

MS clearly broke the agreement, is it strange that the EU after warning them for over a half a year now says enough is enough, you had your chance.

Or would the US government react different?

Discussions about Apple market share or relevancy of the agreement dose not mater, MS just broke a agreement, and have bin given plenty of time to fix it.

Apparently they did not learn from the mega fines from before, or would the US government sit idly by if a EU company ignored a agreement?

Like BP cleaning up less then agreed on.

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By Manch on 9/27/2012 10:08:22 AM , Rating: 4
But they own the tablet space, and until recently had the majority of the smartphone space. Only one choice there, so how is that not the same?

RE: Funny....
By albus on 9/27/12, Rating: -1
RE: Funny....
By Manch on 9/28/2012 2:41:26 AM , Rating: 1
What does that matter? Its a different market. Despite Androids attempts to make any headway into the tablet space, there line up is a fractured mess, MS was even worse(non-existent really), which is why the surface is now coming out. Yeah google has their reference design that they're selling at cost, but just like every other tablet out there, when compared to the ipad, it's just not as good, so people are still flocking to the ipad.

The IPAD dominates that market and Apples restriction in that market to limit its competitors is just as anticompetitive as MS was when the browser fiasco took off.

As far as the EU goes, fining MS for 10% of its global? I didn't realize the EU had jurisdiction over the whole damn planet. If it was 10% of its EU revenue, then OK. It's a money grab pure and simple. They're threatening to go after google now. They 're raiding the Germans coffers to bail out everyone. Theres a whole lot more BS they're pulling in well pick a category!

RE: Funny....
By GotThumbs on 9/27/2012 11:17:56 AM , Rating: 4
That excuse is getting old.

Attempting to justify Apple's clearly restrictive and closed ecosystem by saying they are not as big as MS is just lying to yourself.

If you don't think Apple is big....have you looked at thier revenues recently in the past years. They are way beyond mom and pop.

Get your head out of the sand. You can lie to yourself, but don't try to push that lie onto others. It reflect poorly on your view of reality.

Best Wishes,

RE: Funny....
By BZDTemp on 9/27/2012 12:04:06 PM , Rating: 2
LOL You're the one with the head in the sand.

The proceeding covered here are not about behavior they are about behavior of a company having a controlling market share in one or more markets.

Sure Apple is big and they are certainly behaving like major pricks but they haven't got market control of anything except perhaps parts of the on-line music/media business (which the EU and others are looking into).

RE: Funny....
By semiconshawn on 9/27/2012 4:14:13 PM , Rating: 2
Cash has nothing to do with market control. Apple is losing market control by the minute. They are making more money by a factor of 10 than almost any other player in the game. Apples closed ecosystem itself has competition. You have to buy into the ecosystem, if you dont want to you can go with Android/Google, Microsoft, or Amazon or a combination of both with some. More people have now and are going in that direction according to most metrics. I have all 3 companies procucts in my house. I fail to see how one has an unfair advantage at this point and should be hampered by govt BS.

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Oh snap!

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RE: Funny....
By geddarkstorm on 9/27/2012 1:29:04 PM , Rating: 2
So it's ok to mistreat and competitively handicap one company and not others based solely on success and size? I've got some good news: You too could be an EU regulator.

RE: Funny....
By albus on 9/27/2012 1:32:27 PM , Rating: 2
Heard of Intel vs AMD? Intel desperately needs AMD to prevent the axe of the regulators. Thats how the big boys are treated. Do you remember AT&T split?

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