Apple is NOT a monopoly and neither is Microsoft. A monopoly is when a company has EXCLUSIVE control over a product or service, meaning that there is only ONE company who offers a product or service. Most cable companies and telephone companies ARE examples of monopolies because they are the ONLY ONE who provides cable or telephone service to your house and you DO NOT have a choice to switch to another provider if you still want cable or land-line telephone service. Microsoft is not a monopoly. If Microsoft does something you do not like or you find a better product you have the choice to switch. Microsoft is competing with Apple and Linux and so far they are winning but they are still in a competition. Saying that Microsoft has a monopoly over the OS market is just like saying that Sony has a monopoly over the video game market because most people own a Playstation 2 over any other current gen consoles and as a result Playstation 2 games would out sell games for any other console. Saying that Microsoft has a monopoly over the OS market is also like saying Apple has a monopoly over the MP3 player market. This is also not the case because there are many choices of MP3 players and no single company controls that market.
The reason a company would look like, and not be, a monopoly in the OS market is because the OS market is a strange market. Companies use different code so that programs run differently. If everybody had a different operating system then software companies would have to make different versions of their software to run on all the different OSes. That is why people all chose the same OS so that they all have the largest selection of software to chose from and that their computers would be compatible with their friends and families.
Slashdot Mirror
Aspartame and splenda/sucralose are two totally different things.
Monopoly (n.) Exclusive control by one group of the means of producing or selling a commodity or service http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=monopoly
Apple is NOT a monopoly and neither is Microsoft. A monopoly is when a company has EXCLUSIVE control over a product or service, meaning that there is only ONE company who offers a product or service. Most cable companies and telephone companies ARE examples of monopolies because they are the ONLY ONE who provides cable or telephone service to your house and you DO NOT have a choice to switch to another provider if you still want cable or land-line telephone service. Microsoft is not a monopoly. If Microsoft does something you do not like or you find a better product you have the choice to switch. Microsoft is competing with Apple and Linux and so far they are winning but they are still in a competition. Saying that Microsoft has a monopoly over the OS market is just like saying that Sony has a monopoly over the video game market because most people own a Playstation 2 over any other current gen consoles and as a result Playstation 2 games would out sell games for any other console. Saying that Microsoft has a monopoly over the OS market is also like saying Apple has a monopoly over the MP3 player market. This is also not the case because there are many choices of MP3 players and no single company controls that market.
The reason a company would look like, and not be, a monopoly in the OS market is because the OS market is a strange market. Companies use different code so that programs run differently. If everybody had a different operating system then software companies would have to make different versions of their software to run on all the different OSes. That is why people all chose the same OS so that they all have the largest selection of software to chose from and that their computers would be compatible with their friends and families.