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IshKebab 5 hours ago

> Gamers' vehement defense of what is effectively a monopoly continues to confuse me.

It is a monopoly but that can be a good thing sometimes. Steam is really good! Is it 30% cut good? Maybe not but I do think Valve has managed to keep Steam good for a very long time and if they lose their monopoly they're going to have a strong incentive to fuck things up.

Another example is WhatsApp. Sure, sucks for Google and Apple that WhatsApp have a watertight monopoly in most of Europe (and probably much of the rest of the world; I haven't checked). But it's pretty great for actually users. We've had at least a decade of totally free messaging that everyone has with no ads and e2e encryption.

Meta are just about starting to fuck it up but it's been a pretty great run.

raw_anon_1111 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Why would Apple care if WhatsApp has a monopoly? They don’t make money from iMessage

JambalayaJimbo 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Network effects on iMessage mean people buy iPhones

IshKebab 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That must be why they're so happy to open up iMessage to Android in the US!

raw_anon_1111 3 hours ago | parent [-]

iMessage works fine with SMS and RCS. How would “opening iMessage” benefit Android users?

f33d5173 an hour ago | parent [-]

> iMessage works fine with ... RCS

...because europe forced it to be...

raw_anon_1111 an hour ago | parent [-]

Actually it was China…

https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/02/19/apples-new-rcs-st...