Because even though it might dimish the experience for a relatively small number of Dark Sky users on other platforms, the move can still be a net gain for consumers as a whole due to the large number of iOS users who can now benefit from improvements to the default weather app.
Dark Sky wasn't even available to purchase in my country previously. But now, thanks to this investment by Apple, I get access to a bunch of great new features in the Weather app via a free software update. Calling this "anti-consumer" and declaring that it should be illegal is, in my opinion, an over simplification.
So you are saying that folding in a cross platform company into the platform is a platform advantage... but not a concentration of market power? Apple changed the price of Dark Sky on other platforms to infinity but on it's platform to zero.
One example should be enough to see a problem. Do you not see a problem of Apple denuding other platforms all independent applications? They've taken what... Siri, Shazam, NextVR, Dark Skies off other platforms. How would you quantify your limit if not one?
They block Firefox/Opera in preference to their own, they impose undue costs on Spotify etc. I see a need for separation of pipes and content. Break up the apple App business and it's platform otherwise the market abuse will continue.
Shazam is still available on Android and Apple announced that WeatherKit will be available for Android.
But more to the point, Android is backed by Google - a company with a 1T+ market cap. If Google can’t keep up with Apple, it’s not because of lack resources. It’s because Google has the attention span of crack addled flea.
Even if google keeps up, which would negate the "platform advantage" part of the equation, that's still a concentration of market power into just two companies.
> Do you not see a problem of Apple denuding other platforms all independent applications?
There are ~3.3 million apps on Android. So no, I do not see the possibility of Apple denuding Android of all independent apps as a realistic concern.
> How would you quantify your limit if not one?
I don’t think setting a limit on the number of companies that Apple can acquire is the correct way to frame the question. Instead I think you need to take a look at each acquisition independently and look at things like the percentage of market share they are acquiring, what alternatives exist in the market, etc. I’m fairly sure Dark Sky never had a dominant market share, and plenty of alternative weather apps exist, so I really don’t see this as an anti-trust issue.
