Private/secret APIs in DOS/Windows were a prominent part of the US and EU antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft in the 90s/00s.

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alwillis a day ago | parent | next [-]

> Private/secret APIs in Windows were a prominent part of the US and EU antitrust lawsuits against Microsoft in the 90s/00s.

It mattered because Microsoft had 95% of the operating system market at the time and was using its monopoly position to take over the web, even after signing a decent decree with the US government.

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lysace a day ago | parent [-]

Edit: It can probably be argued that Apple is a acting like a monopolist in one or a few areas though?

The current web monopolist (Google) was coincidentally founded 2 months after the US antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft was decided (july - september 1998).

Similarly meh results with US vs Google two weeks ago.

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alwillis a day ago | parent [-]

> It can probably be argued that Apple is a acting like a monopolist in one or a few areas though?

I don't think that's a credible argument. Apple, at best, has about 55% smartphone marketshare in the United States--and significantly less in most other countries.

Remember, having a monopoly isn't itself illegal; it's using the monopoly to disadvantage competitors, especially in emerging markets, which was what the Microsoft case was all about.

I don't think there's a legal justification for suggesting that Apple creating a private feature only they can use--for now--gives them unfair advantage in the market.

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple makes it a public feature in a future release of iOS 26.

	▲	leptons a day ago \| parent [-]
		Apple forces all browsers on iOS to use the Safari browser engine, which they intentionally hobble by not implementing APIs that other browser engines have had forever so that Apple can force developers to create native apps for iOS which Apple then can extract 30% (or whatever they decide it is today) revenue from, where they can't do that from a web application. This is one of many reasons Apple is being sued by the DOJ for antitrust violations, and one reason they got sued by the EU and lost. https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/media/1344546/dl

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blahyawnblah a day ago | parent | prev [-]

Microsoft doesn't punish you for using those though.