Apple fights to keep DOJ antitrust suit from reaching trial

The trial is in the US where Apple does actually have a majority of overall sales.

> A majority is not a monopoly. I can't think of any market segment where there isn't an acceptable alternative product to purchase if I chose to.

Nadela, is that you ? /s

Alternatives to Apple are as follows:

Computers (Macs) - Lenovo, HP, Dell, Microsoft, etc.

Tablets (iPads) - Samsung, Microsoft, etc.

Phones (iPhones) - Samsung, Google, etc.

Smart Watches (Apple Watch) - Samsung, Garmin, etc.

Cloud Storage Services (iCloud) - Google, Microsoft, Amazon, etc.

Bluetooth Audio Devices (AirPods) - Samsung, Sony, Bose, etc.

Bluetooth tracking tags (AirTags) - Tile

TV Streaming Boxes (AppleTV) - Roku, Amazon, Google, etc.

VR Headsets (Apple Vision Pro) - Meta/Oculus

Am I missing any major product categories for Apple here? They aren't even close to holding majority market share in most of those categories I listed.

Due to my mental illness am not a very social person. But normal people mirror what everyone else is doing. We developed in tribes. So when your peers have an iPhone you yourself need to have an iPhone or end up as the outcast.

Apple knows that they are a premium fashion brand. It was what Jobs was aiming for from day one.

Similar to the top comment, I think of Apple as primarily a fashion company, and they have no real competitors in that area.

Can tech fashion be its own market segment?

I don't understand this perspective. I don't buy an iPhone for "social status", or "tech fashion." I buy it for the features. Those of which Android has no analogy.

This is not meant to be an Android vs iOS debate. I am trying to point out that your perspective is incredibly dismissive of the real reasons iOS is gaining market share.

Respectfully, that sounds like a way to rationalize not having looked at the market in depth. They’ve had competition in that space since the beginning – both other tech companies and actual fashion companies tried to make premium music players, phones, watches, etc. even before they entered those markets so at most you could say that they’ve out-competed them.

However, even that doesn’t fit what we see. Their pricing isn’t luxury - compare Google or Samsung’s flagship phones and it’s basically equal, nothing remotely like the significant cost differential we see between normal and luxury clothes or other personal goods, and that’s before you factor in the lead they have on features like performance or security. Buying a Mercedes costs multiple times more and won’t get you to work faster but buying an iPhone will load every web page faster than an Android phone at the same price point, for example.

> "your perspective is incredibly dismissive of the real reasons iOS is gaining market share."

I do not know the real reasons, but I have heard 2 things repeated often:

1 -- the ability to work smoothly with other apple products, which is sort of a circular argument, but it makes it harder or costlier to switch away from apple, so could tend to increase market share.

2 - There were a ton of recent articles about teenagers being made to feel inferior for having an android phone instead of an iphone, which fits with the fashion aspect.

There are of course other reasons why people say they prefer iphone, but I find it difficult to distinguish what people think is better from what they are simply already accustomed to.