Thoughts
The HN Apple monopoly lawsuit thread is so funny because everyone is airing their personal grievances with Apple.
> RIP lala.com, my first and favorite music streaming service - bought out by Apple...As if I needed a reason to further resent Apple.
There was a comment that was really interesting about how Apple's issue is that it doesn't have good enough relationships with third-party companies, in particular App developers. And that's a big part of how I see Apple. This isn't about Apple vs. consumers, this is about Apple vs third party developers. The browser engine thing is a good example. You can argue all you want that more choice is inherently better for consumers, but I don't think end-users really care. I'm a web developer and I don't really care. So add on to that that I (as a self-admitted Apple fanboy) think that Apple's web browser is the best. And I don't understand what the angle for end-users is. You can make a similar argument for streaming music services or accessories. Garmin feels wronged because they can't make a watch that replies to texts on an iPhone, but I can reply to texts from my iPhone on my Apple Watch, so I don't feel wronged. And even if a Garmin could reply to texts, I would still buy an Apple Watch.
And so Apple is causing harm, and it's causing harm to its competitors. (Whether it's anti-competitive or just hurting them by making better products will be decided by the court.) But a lot of the HN comments seem naive in thinking that this lawsuit is about allowing indie developers to access the file system API or something.