It's not hard for me to imagine that an Amazon Android tablet will push Apple to boot the Kindle off their platform.
That whooshing noise is a DoJ v. Apple anti-trust case on final approach in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...
I find it hard to imagine a more overt anti-competitive act than booting an app from your app store because the vendor starts selling a different product that might undercut your company store. And while the DoJ has been remarkably supine in pursuing anti-trust cases since the Clinton administration, Apple's relentless rise in the CE sector has got to have been alarming their rivals.
[ EDIT: Which is to say, I believe such a move would cross the line from business hardball into monopolistic practices at which point politics comes into play. ]
All they have to do to kick Kindle off is enforce their recent policy of requiring all downloadable content to also be available through in-app purchasing at a 30% fee. At the moment the Kindle app appears to be enjoying the protection of an unwritten grandfather clause.
If this does happen I hope it does attract some anti-trust scrutiny.
That whooshing noise is a DoJ v. Apple anti-trust case on final approach in 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...
I find it hard to imagine a more overt anti-competitive act than booting an app from your app store because the vendor starts selling a different product that might undercut your company store. And while the DoJ has been remarkably supine in pursuing anti-trust cases since the Clinton administration, Apple's relentless rise in the CE sector has got to have been alarming their rivals.
[ EDIT: Which is to say, I believe such a move would cross the line from business hardball into monopolistic practices at which point politics comes into play. ]