In a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, Microsoft president Brad Smith announced his support for an antitrust investigation into Apple’s iPhone app store model. OK. So far, so good. Apple claims up to 30% from its app store vendors for every program they sell. It may not be extortion, but if you talk to iPhone independent software vendors (ISVs), they might use stronger language. Smith went on, “You’re seeing app stores that have created higher walls and far more formidable gates to access to other applications than anything that existed in the industry [Windows] 20 years ago.”

Excuse me!?

Apple makes it harder on vendors today than Microsoft did in the 1990s and early 2000s? I don’t think so! Microsoft had 90% of the PC market, compared to Apple’s 13.7% of the smartphone market.

Was Microsoft in the 1990s really better than Apple in the 2020s? More>