U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren says she’s not a fan of “green texts on iPhones” and that it’s “time to break up Apple’s smartphone monopoly,” but statistics show the tech giant doesn’t have exclusive c…
and even then, Android is mostly open source.
I’ve personally updated the kernel to my Amazon Fire tablet (and believe me, the 3.18 branch doesn’t contain as many security backports as they’d have you believe)
Antitrust is not about whether people have the arbitrary ability to go around it, it’s about whether people actually go around it, and if not, is that because one player entrenched themselves in the market that they are able to distort it.
Yes, the use of OSS by Google doesn’t exempt them from antitrust laws.
But also yes, it does give them a defense that Apple just doesn’t have. Not solely because of the OS portions, but also because it tends to guarantee some nominal competition. See above my point about Samsung’s alternatives.
and even then, Android is mostly open source.
I’ve personally updated the kernel to my Amazon Fire tablet (and believe me, the 3.18 branch doesn’t contain as many security backports as they’d have you believe)
Antitrust is not about whether people have the arbitrary ability to go around it, it’s about whether people actually go around it, and if not, is that because one player entrenched themselves in the market that they are able to distort it.
I mean, you’re both right.
Yes, the use of OSS by Google doesn’t exempt them from antitrust laws.
But also yes, it does give them a defense that Apple just doesn’t have. Not solely because of the OS portions, but also because it tends to guarantee some nominal competition. See above my point about Samsung’s alternatives.