The future for general-purpose computing

Posted Dec 10, 2020 17:54 UTC (Thu) by smitty_one_each (subscriber, #28989)
Parent article: The future for general-purpose computing

If only there were some. . .invisible hand. . .that could somehow inject competition into the situation, such that Big Tech were less prone to treating customers like serfs. Such a mechanism, to be viable, would need the ubiquity of capitalism to succeed.

The future for general-purpose computing

Posted Dec 11, 2020 13:32 UTC (Fri) by jerojasro (guest, #98169) [Link] (6 responses)

If only there were some. . .invisible hand. . .that could somehow inject competition into the situation

The invisible hand of the ~~market~~ government regulation?

The future for general-purpose computing

Posted Dec 11, 2020 14:20 UTC (Fri) by smitty_one_each (subscriber, #28989) [Link] (3 responses)

Government is to competition as
singular is to plural.

The future for general-purpose computing

Posted Dec 11, 2020 17:17 UTC (Fri) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link] (2 responses)

So you don't think there's any role at all for government regulation? Throw out anti-trust laws? Let corporations do whatever they want to stifle competition with no legal barriers?

The future for general-purpose computing

Posted Dec 11, 2020 17:21 UTC (Fri) by smitty_one_each (subscriber, #28989) [Link] (1 responses)

You over-read me.
Capitalism is buyer/marketplace/seller.
Sellers seek to conquer marketplace and buyer.
You need "enough" regulation for keep buyer/marketplace/seller in equilibrium.

The future for general-purpose computing

Posted Dec 11, 2020 19:05 UTC (Fri) by jerojasro (guest, #98169) [Link]

And, do we have enough regulation?

or are in a situation where we are wishing that Big Tech were less prone to treating customers like serfs ?

The future for general-purpose computing

Posted Dec 11, 2020 21:40 UTC (Fri) by ecree (guest, #95790) [Link] (1 responses)

How about the invisible hand of use your head and vote with your feet: don't buy products that cost an arm and a leg and mean Apple has you by the balls.

No regulation that's ever likely to make it through the lobbyist-infested swamp of government will prevent users who want this kind of B&D hardware from buying it. The only way is to stop users from wanting it. (No, I don't know how to achieve that either.)

The future for general-purpose computing

Posted Dec 16, 2020 9:49 UTC (Wed) by cortana (subscriber, #24596) [Link]

Voting with my feet/wallet can't prevent Apple from capturing the SMS messaging marketplace.

With the popularity of group chats in iMessage, Apple has embraced and extended, and peer pressure from users is taking care of the extinguishment phase.