I think this debate is interesting, but I don't expect Apple to be happy about the final outcome. A developer publishing solely on Apple's App Store (and relying solely on Apple features to provide functionality) has no direct access to the customer* - Apple prevents that fairly well. In this case, I feel like, as a consumer, I'm Apple's customer. I think courts, and especially juries, would agree.
That said, I don't see how the App Store is a monopoly. How would "monopoly" be defined to even formulate a case against Apple?
* - notwithstanding that many apps want you to create an account on their systems - Apple does indeed allow this.
> That said, I don't see how the App Store is a monopoly. How would "monopoly" be defined to even formulate a case against Apple?
I think the argument would be fairly straightforward: the App Store is the exclusive avenue to distribute paid applications to iPhone users. In so doing, it acts as a single seller of applications to consumers and a single buyer of applications from developers, and its arbitrarily-set fees are incorporated into prices.
The fine parsing comes in whether "iPhone users" are a sufficiently distinct market to effectively make the App Store a monopoly, and I think reasonable people could have different opinions here.
So, they're certainly a monopoly in that market today and possibly in the general market in the near future. I have also read that you don't even need to have a higher than 50% market share to be considered a monopoly. You simply need to affect the entire market, which Apple certainly does with their 45% general market share in the US.
The app store is a monopoly because its the only app store you can use on an apple phone. There is no other way to find, pay for, or download apps as an apple phone user.
This argument fails because consumers have ample choice in what phones they want to use. You can just as easily purchase an Android phone and not have to play by Apple's rules.
Yes, Apple has a monopoly over iPhones. They do have a monopoly over phones.
It's standard for a "channel to market" to hide the customer.
If my product is being sold in any retail store e.g. Best Buy then I typically don't have access to the customer's contact details that may be collected at the checkout. It's up to me to capture that information when a user uses my product.
That said, I don't see how the App Store is a monopoly. How would "monopoly" be defined to even formulate a case against Apple?
* - notwithstanding that many apps want you to create an account on their systems - Apple does indeed allow this.