Can I use the Google Play store on my iPhone? If not, there is no other provider competing with Apple in the market that is “selling apps to iPhone users”.
Whether that’s a market considered relevant from an antitrust point of view is the big question.
I can't use another company's GPS system in my car, so in the market of, "Using GPS navigation / menus / etc in my 10 year old Mini's dashboard" there's no meaningful competitor. They charge for map updates and everything.
At some point a company is just building a feature, and they're not required to make every single feature accomodate every other manufacturer's competing version of the feature. I knew I was buying the Mini system when I bought the car, and I accepted it. Same is true for iPhone users.
> I knew I was buying the Mini system when I bought the car, and I accepted it.
"Knowing that you're buying into a monopoly" is generally not a valid defense for a monopolist. The idea is that there can be a disadvantage/harmful impact to market participants even despite their full knowledge of the market structure (which isn't even a given for retail consumers).
But generally, I agree: There are definitely many closed ecosystems/non-competitive "markets" like the ones you describe, and more often than not, regulators don't step in. Who knows, maybe regulators will address that market at some point! The EU DMA doesn't seem to obviously not apply in this scenario, for example.
Several factors for why I'd consider that case to be a bit different though:
- Many car entertainment systems now offer you to connect an iPhone or Android phone and use CarPlay or Android Auto for navigation. You can reasonably use the car's navigation functionality (GPS antenna, voice output, built-in screen that won't hit your head in an accident) without paying the car manufacturer!
- If your car doesn't allow that, or you don't want to use Apple's or Google's solutions, you can stick a physical aftermarket navigation system to your windshield/ventilation grill.
- There isn't a single car maker that controls roughly half of the US market.
That's exactly what I'm arguing for. Two competing (commercial) smartphone OSes are probably just fine! Much more than that would probably make it uneconomical for developers to provide native apps for all of them, unless they're API compatible.
If there is another - more popular provider. Isn’t it at the very least a duopoly? Or are we redefining words now?