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Products: iPhone

When the angry European Commission descends on Apple...

A frequently asked question: why didn’t the EU crack down on Apple the way it did on Microsoft when it tried to apply similar methods on the Windows platform? The answer is simple. Apple did not have a dominant position from an antitrust perspective. The dominant position of a company or group of companies is a decisive criterion that must always be met if certain conduct is to be considered unlawful under competition law. A dominant position is one of economic power that enables a company to prevent effective competition because it gives it the power to behave to a considerable extent independently of its competitors, customers, and ultimately consumers. The European Court of Justice has stated that if the market share exceeds 50%, then the existence of a dominant position can be directly established. If the market share is between 30% and 40%, then other factors must be taken into account when determining whether a dominant position exists.

Apple’s share of the smartphone market in 2011 is around 25% in the US, while the global average is below 14.4% according to IDC Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, depending, of course, on how you define the terms and which category the iPhone falls into. If we took all mobile phones into account, the share would be even lower. It follows that Apple is still too small for the EC to take aim at it.

So no one is going to attack Apple for now; on the contrary, everyone is watching it, happy to add their criticism and waiting to see what Apple does that turns out to be a dead end and what can be copied painlessly. The case of the new version of Windows Phone 7, which seems to be the spitting image of iPhone OS in terms of its conditions, possibilities, and limitations, is a good example of this trend.

This may have been the company’s motivation to deal with the shadow of Adobe Flash right from the start, before it could be criticized.

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