Rick, I jailbreak all my Apple devices. But you're still confusing things. Ford demanding Ford parts for their own cars is not a monopoly - it is a closed ecosystem or walled garden . A monopoly would be if Ford dominated the entire auto market and you could only buy Ford vehicles (or at least had to work really hard to find an alternate).
The term monopoly only makes sense when used in relation to a market, not specific products. Of course Ford has the monopoly on Ford vehicles - their the only ones who make them. In regard to your comment about the newspapers, again you are mixing things. What the NYT or WSJ charges for their content has nothing to do with Apple and is not a monopoly. They don't control the news - in fact, the news industry is the complete opposite of a monopoly. There are plenty of competitors and tons of choices for customers. That is what defines a free market - a system with many buyers and many sellers. Now that being said, I don't agree with their pricing, at least on the NYT side. They still don't get how the publishing world has changed. For example, the NYT syndicates much of their content to many smaller newspapers around the country. So in a lot of cases you can just google the article title and read for free in the Topeka Herald what they would charge you for on the iPad. That's on top of the fact that the same news story (with much of the same content) is being published at thousands of other locations around the web. The WSJ is different. Their customers perceive that the WSJ content can help them make money. That is a much different situation than just news that the average person reads which generally has no economic potential (which is what the NT offers). So the WSJ can charge whatever the market supports, as long as their customers feel they are getting value. And we are free not to pay for that content if we don't want to. --------------------------- Brian Weeden Technical Advisor Secure World Foundation <http://www.secureworldfoundation.org> +1 (514) 466-2756 Canada +1 (202) 683-8534 US On Wed, Apr 7, 2010 at 3:59 PM, Rick Glazier <[email protected]> wrote: > Agreed. That is why they call it "jail-break". > When you are in the Apple "prison" they have the Monopoly. > > It is no different than when you buy a car and need a SPECIFIC hard to > replace part. > Ford made my door handle out of plastic and then beat my brains out when it > broke. > At least Apple seems to be generous with covering repairs for their > customers. > They make good stuff, and get the "repair money" up-front... > > How about the newspaper that charges almost DOUBLE to iPad users. > WSJ<???> or NYT<???> (I don't care because I don't have one...) > > Rick Glazier > > > "Brian Weeden > > > Yep, monopoly is the wrong word. Lots of other people make tablets, >> phones, >> mp3 players, and have online music services, with various degrees of >> market >> share. >> >> "Close ecosystem" or "walled garden" are probably more appropriate. >> >
