back to article Apple, Amazon and Google are screwing us, warns Elizabeth Warren

Potential vice-president and Wall Street critic Elizabeth Warren has accused tech giants Apple, Amazon and Google of undermining competition and using their political clout to kill off efforts to place limits on them. Giving the keynote [PDF] at a one-day conference titled "America's Monopoly Problem," the senator warned: " …

  1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Windows

    Oh my. I'm shocked that screwing is going on!

    Okay, cool. Fauxcahontas has her new wedge issue to flog.

    But so what.

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge

      Re: Oh my. I'm shocked that screwing is going on!

      "Fauxcahontas has her new wedge issue to flog."

      'Fauxcahontas'. good one. I'm actually at least 1/8 American Indian (2 different tribes, and I can name one of them along with my ancestor who was a member of that tribe), and I have a few facial features to prove it, the shape of my nose and things like that. SHE, on the other hand, has NONE of that. Then again a LOT of us across the pond, particularly descendents of pioneers, can make a similar claim. So it's no big deal, really, unless you're a liberal Demo-Rat trying to identify with 'groups' and manipulate people.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Oh my. I'm shocked that screwing is going on!

        ...and get into uni on the minority ticket

    2. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

      Re: Oh my. I'm shocked that screwing is going on!

      "Fauxcahontas"

      A bit of casual racism?

      How charming.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Oh my. I'm shocked that screwing is going on!

        What a crock...Calling Warren Pocahontas or Fauxcahontas or anything-ahontas is not racist. Any American (male in particular) will tell you that when they were young having Native American heritage was always considered to be the height of cool. And there was always some lily-white poser in the neighborhood claiming to be a quarter "Indian" just to get some recognition. Calling her Pocahontas is not a pejorative based on her made-up culture, its just a round-a-bout way of calling her a poser.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Surely she could have come up with a better example for Apple

    I'm not aware of any restrictions Apple is placing on competing music streaming services. Heck, Apple has only had its own music streaming service for a year now, it has a single digit share of the overall streaming market, and is only available on iPhones which themselves are a minority of the US market. There's nothing stopping me from using Pandora, Spotify, Google or Amazon's music streaming on my iPhone, or making it more difficult than it was 18 months ago when Apple wasn't in that market.

    Perhaps she could have used a better example like Apple only allowing apps to be downloaded from their own App Store and not permitting alternate app stores unless you jailbreak?

    1. Jim Mitchell

      Re: Surely she could have come up with a better example for Apple

      Today's news:

      http://www.recode.net/2016/6/30/12067578/spotify-apple-app-store-rejection

      So Spotify is saying this exact thing, that Apple is placing restrictions on competing music streaming services.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Surely she could have come up with a better example for Apple

        And the Spotify wemd site is perfectly usable from the Web browser supplied with IOS.

        Oh, and subscribing via the browser cuts Apple out of the loop entirely.

        {no I don't listen to any streaming service but my Granddaughter does. She explained how she saved the Apple tax.}

        Could it be that spotify is getting scared of the competition? They have the majority share of the US market. Apple does not. Just like Android phones sell more by volume that Apple sells iPhones.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Surely she could have come up with a better example for Apple

        Actually read that article that you linked to. It has nothing to do with Spotify being a music streaming app that competes. It's all about subscriptions inside the app and payments. This applies to all apps on the App Store.

        1. P. Lee

          Re: Surely she could have come up with a better example for Apple

          >It's all about subscriptions inside the app and payments. This applies to all apps on the App Store.

          I think that's the point of the article isn't it? The platform forces everyone to play by Apple's rules which favour (surprise!) Apple.

          This isn't a problem in a competitive industry, but Warren's point is that consolidation means that it isn't a competitive industry any more and what would otherwise be a legitimate position is not acceptable in a monopoly (or duopoly) environment.

          Think of it like "indirect discrimination." e.g. All policemen must be at least 5'10'' The rule applies to everyone equally, is born of good intentions (a strong physical street presence), and doesn't explicitly forbid women from joining up, but it is structured in such a way that effectively bars them from service and brings imbalance to the force.

          None of this is news to most of us, but the network lock-in effect we have built in IT today is unprecedented and is not something the market appears to correct. Big Tech has saturated its market and cloud/rental is its solution to continued profits. This strategy should be questioned as it kills competition in new ways we haven't had to deal with before.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Surely she could have come up with a better example for Apple

      The Apple limitation that beguiles me the most is Apple boxing out free FM Radio in favor of thier own streaming service.

      Turns out that the radios [WiFi, 3G, 4G, LTE, ...] inside many older iPhones also have FM capability, but Apple purposely blocks developer access.

      Go Lizzy go; you swat at those bad monopolistic actors that are screwing us, and then take their money into your PACs whilst noone is watching.

      How sweetly slimey.

      I just love how the American Libs manipulate us.

    3. donguevas

      Re: Surely she could have come up with a better example for Apple

      Apple Music was released for Android last year...

      Also Apple had 44 percent of the smart Phone market and Android 51.

      Apple is a single manufacturer while the Android numbers are split out between multiple manufacturers.

      So in reality apple is the biggest player who can influence it.

  3. Herby

    And what about...

    Those up Redmond, Washington??

    Note to tech industry: Be careful for what you ask for, you may just get it (and its baggage).

    "Pay no attention to the man woman behind the curtain.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: And what about...

      Interesting point.. that's the one name I would have expected to be a list of monopoly-like companies. Their practices are legendary to say the least.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: And what about...

      The only one which had to bend to EU competition rules while US authorities were sleeping? Actually today Microsoft is far less an issue than Google, Apple and Amazon are - although with Windows 10 it's trying to regain its place among them.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Too little, too late.

    Warren's officially a sellout now. Not that I ever believed the hype about her.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not that I ever believed the hype about her.

      Elizabeth Warren is one angry looking person.

      Maybe because of all the injustice she has suffered at the hands of the white man?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I can't speak to the other examples, but in the Healthcare field the government is the primary driving force for the fewer number of independent hospitals and healthcare insurance companies.

    Their ill conceived dictates are also exposing patient records, with all the identity information that contains, to whoever wants to take it.

  6. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Go

    All female ticket, brings in people Hilary can't. Stood up to "The D."

    Sounds like a pretty good tactical choice for Hilary.

    1. Dadmin

      Re: All female ticket, brings in people Hilary can't. Stood up to "The D."

      Yeah, I'm with "hers." It's fun to make some noise, but in the end; what device does she have in her purse? I'm sure this will all fix itself, or blow over. Silicon Valley is a true, blue friend, so she can't rail too hard against us. Anyway, there's lots of broken stuff in gubment, and this will get buried once the list of things that are more important stack up. I'll take a million angry ladies over one orange-colored, jizz-bagpipe any day of the week.

      It's fun to watch an orange crap trying to pretend it's white. I told me mum back in January; I've known of Donald Trump since circa 1997, he frequented the awesome Howard Stern radio show in NY, and I knew all about this windbag, and his many bankruptcies. I told her; Donald Trump is the number one candidate to pick that will lose to Hillary. You can't pick an easier loser than The Donald. It even make its' own gravy. It is known.

  7. The Nazz

    Let me see if i understand this.

    Senator Warren is a Democrat.

    She rails against the monopoly power of huge business, particularly tech firms, such as Google.

    Yet she's supported Obama for over 7 years. in bending over backwards for Google, notwithstanding being elected by.

    And she wants to be running mate to the mega-sold out would be (probably will be ) POTUS Clinton?

    Weird. Or par for the course.

    At least our Sturgeon seems to be flogging a dying horse simply for the hell of it.

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: Let me see if i understand this.

      World has gone nuts.

      Even weirded things are happening - like a hair organization deprived immigrant descendant of Turkish origin winning a campaign he never expected to win by scaring his adoptive compatriots with an influx of Turks. What next? One of the Turkish MPs apologizing for The Boris, the same way Scotland officially apologized for The other hair organization deprived immigrant descendant - the Donald in the British Parliament?

    2. Mark 85

      Re: Let me see if i understand this.

      No... not weird at all. She's a perfect counterpoint to Hillary for balance. Assuming Hillary wins, after the election, she becomes relatively meaningless unless something happens to Hillary. The last sitting President we lost to death was Kennedy. Nixon, because.. well.. he was a crook.

      1. Eddy Ito

        Re: Let me see if i understand this.

        Don't forget that sending Warren to the VP chair also gets her out of the hair of Senate Dems <cough>Chuck Schumer</cough> who are getting tired of her railing against their corporate backers.

    3. bombastic bob Silver badge

      Re: Let me see if i understand this.

      "Senator Warren is a Democrat."

      and in the back pocket of the same dragons she's attempting to APPEAR to be slaying. Create an enemy, appear to want to SLAY it, rally the emotions and manipulate, manipulate, manipulate!

      So we get the Queen of Hearts _AND_ the Queen of Diamonds. _TWO_ "Red Queens!" Oh, joy!

      Those two would drive me MAD as a Hatter.

    4. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Let me see if i understand this.

      "At least our Sturgeon seems to be flogging a dying horse simply for the hell of it."

      <mental image of dead horse being slapped about the head with a wet fish>

      Hmmm....that might work better than CorrectHorseBatteryStaple....

  8. MrTuK

    I see two tech companies missing from the list.

    Intel and Microsoft !

    Both have been prosecuted before for anti-competitive practices !

    Also NVidia should be added in this list !

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge

      "I see two tech companies missing from the list. Intel and Microsoft !"

      They must've paid the extortion fee already.

      1. Eddy Ito

        It's a "campaign contribution", please stick with the accepted political terminology. After all, we're supposed to know what the definition of "is" is when we hear it.

  9. Oengus

    "Even though Wall Street is bitterly opposed to her being on the Democratic ticket"

    Isn't this reason enough to support her???

  10. veti Silver badge
    Holmes

    Big companies are abusing their position

    In other news, water is still wet.

  11. Thaumaturge

    Democrat optomism...

    "Apple, Amazon and Google are screwing us, warns Elizabeth Warren"

    Sounds like a case of wishful thinking... no doubt has been a LONG time.

  12. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

    As it's friday, with pub o'clock and Malta vs Belgium only hours away, how about a little stroll down memory lane?

  13. Tachikoma

    How about banning backhander lobbying in the first place? The fact you can "buy" a politician/presidential candidate with enough "donations" should be recognised for the corruption it is.

  14. Bronek Kozicki

    there is an easy test how honest her intentions are

    Let her explain how she would fix the problem of local monopolies of cable/ISP companies in the US. Without deferring all the action to FCC alone.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Play-to-the-plebs electioneering / school of empty promises:

    I'm not red or blue I'm the self-preservation society... Just trying to survive getting raped by one side and clubbed to death by the other. The elite don't care, this is all just posturing / empty electioneering.... If Hilary gets in, expect more Obama-sucks-Google's-cock style policy-making...

  16. disgruntled yank

    potential running mate?

    Clinton needs Warren on the ticket as much as Trump needs hair advice from Boris Johnson.

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