The US Department of Justice and 16 state and district attorneys general accused Apple of operating an illegal monopoly in the smartphone market in a new antitrust lawsuit. The DOJ and states are accusing Apple of driving up prices for consumers and developers at the expense of making users more reliant on its iPhones.

  • UristMcHolland
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    1971 year ago

    I don’t hate Apple but I do hate their influence. They release some wireless earbuds and then suddenly all the manufacturers “don’t have enough room for a headphone jack”, …get the fuck out of here.

    • @Ultraviolet@lemmy.world
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      171 year ago

      Deliberately degrading picture quality when the metadata says it’s from a competitor to push the narrative that they have the best cameras is also pretty low. Points for the sheer audacity, though.

        • @olympicyes@lemmy.world
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          11 year ago

          The proof is the status quo. Video texts from Android users look bad on an iPhone. Apple could choose to fall back to RCS instead of SMS from iMessage. RCS would offer better video quality than SMS, which overall improves the interoperability of all phones. Because RCS is a standard and the natural successor to SMS, refusing to support the standard makes it less likely to succeed, with the intent of defending their dominant market share.

          • @pycorax@lemmy.world
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            21 year ago

            While I agree with you, this isn’t as outright as I though it would be though. Apple fan boys could very easily just handwave this away. Frankly I don’t live in the US so no one here uses iMessage anyways so I don’t really have any examples I have seen or could use to show people.

    • @WhataburgerSr@lemmy.world
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      141 year ago

      Vote with your wallet.

      I’m one of the few people that use my headphone jack with Grado headphones and have had Motorola phones so I can listen to music the way I want.

      Don’t even get me started on the light green bubble shit.

      Fuck Apple.

    • @PlainSimpleGarak@lemm.ee
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      -41 year ago

      But that’s not illegal. Apple can’t force competitors to be influenced by them. If Samsung, Google and the like choose to be sheep, that’s on them. I don’t use Apple products. They’re not impacting my life.

        • @PlainSimpleGarak@lemm.ee
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          -81 year ago

          I should hope not. They have about 61% market share in the US. A large chunk to be sure, but hardly a monopoly. With plenty of Android OS manufacturers, there are plenty to choose from.

          • @kaffiene@lemmy.world
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            121 year ago

            Did you read the article? Their concerns are a number of anticompetiive behaviours from Apple,. Not the lack of competition. But that said, “Android” is not a competitor, Android is an OS. Samsung is a competitor and they’re nowhere near Apples size in the US

              • @kaffiene@lemmy.world
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                21 year ago

                It’s not a competitor in the sense of a being a company that can monopolise, which is the context of the discsussion

      • prole
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        91 year ago

        If you own a phone, Apple impacts your life. Don’t be naive.

        • @PlainSimpleGarak@lemm.ee
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          -11 year ago

          That’s silly. I own a Samsung phone. Checking email and the weather on it hardly “impacts” my life. Furthermore, you have the option to move to another platform if it bothers you that much. If people don’t leave, that indicates their users are willing to tolerate these issues.

          • prole
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            51 year ago

            Apple impacts your life, if indirectly, by shaping the market that they control over 50% of. I haven’t owned an Apple product since my 4th gen click wheel iPod, and I’d be a fool to suggest that their decisions don’t have an influence on my life.

            • @PlainSimpleGarak@lemm.ee
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              -21 year ago

              Influence and impact are not interchangeable. I would agree they have some influence (indirect) as they affect their competitors and I purchase products from their competitors. They don’t impact (direct) me as I do not use any of their services or products. Apple and I do not have a direct relationship.

              • prole
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                1 year ago

                Lol ok semantics.

                “Impact” doesn’t mean “direct” necessarily, that’s why the word is often used with the word “direct” or “indirect” as a modifier.

      • Sjmarf
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        1 year ago

        OC isn’t claiming that the shift in the industry is solely Apple’s fault:

        I don’t hate Apple but I do hate their influence

        The reality is that what OC said is exactly what happened. Apple removed the headphone jack to coerce people into buying AirPods. Everyone else released their own wireless earbuds to compete, and also removes their headphone jacks for the same reason.

    • @iopq@lemmy.world
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      -91 year ago

      Actually it coincided with IPX rating for smartphones. The last headphone jack smartphones did not have water resistance, but the newer models did. People voted for a more sealed phone with their wallets.

      These days you can get both, but my phone has a 3.5mm jack and NO ipx rating that I could find

      • prole
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        1 year ago

        People voted for a more sealed phone with their wallets.

        LOL imagine if capitalism actually worked this way…

        Edit: People seem to be missing the point. I am aware that phones with 3.5mm jacks exist. I also just understand that capitalism and “free markets” don’t actually work the way people seem to think they do. Maybe if the headphone jack was the most important feature to people, it would do better. Or maybe if it was an mp3 player and not a phone. Or maybe, simply, if it was manufactured by a brand people have heard of. Sometimes it’s literally that simple.

        But that isn’t the case, is it?

          • prole
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            31 year ago

            Maybe people aren’t spending $500-$1200 on a device just because it has a headphone jack. Like that’s anyone’s top concern.

            • @iopq@lemmy.world
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              -11 year ago

              Zen phone 10 has everything you need and a 3.5mm jack

              Why isn’t it outselling the rest of them?

              • prole
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                1 year ago

                Are you asking me to explain microeconomics to you? Ask 100 people in the US if they’ve ever heard of Zen Phone, and 99 will tell you no.

                And, again, that’s nobody’s top concern. Maybe if it was an mp3 player, rather than a phone, whether or not it has a headphone jack would be higher up on the priority list.

        • @exothermic@lemmy.world
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          21 year ago

          Oh, that thing is garbage. I prefer the 6.35mm RGA jacks for superior hi fidelity quality. It’s a shame they don’t make phones with those.

            • @exothermic@lemmy.world
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              -11 year ago

              How dare. 6.35mm is superior and I for one want it on my phone. The larger jack size provides a greater surface area for conductance. Why is this important? Glad you asked, more surface area translates to less resistance at the junction, thus allowing more electrons to flow freely from your device to your ocular cavity, where sound is processed from compression waves into electromagnetic waves. The 6.35mm jack is the best option for hi-fi 256 bit color. As you can see, it’s all basic science. Source: I’m a stientist

    • @SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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      -111 year ago

      That’s not Apple, that’s the free market. Samsung touted wired headphones and a headphone jack and the market still showed they wanted wireless.

      • @Raiderkev@lemmy.world
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        161 year ago

        But we had wireless headphones already. The choice to have both was nice. Not being able to charge and use headphones sucks. Also tiny e waste pods with tiny non recyclable batteries are terrible for the environment compared to a wired pair when thrown in a landfill.

      • prole
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        61 year ago

        and the market still showed they wanted wireless

        Or maybe people just need phones and there are only like 3 actual options.

        • @SulaymanF@lemmy.world
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          -11 year ago

          That’s simply not true. Have you been in a mobile phone store recently? There’s far more than 3 brands of phone let alone 3 models per brand.