I don't find it particularly interesting to argue over whether Google and/or Apple or Goople are monopolies/duopolies.<p>I think however it is obvious that something has seriously pathologically gone wrong in the mobile software market and these two companies are behind it.<p>I also don't think that appeals to "is that legal" are all that satisfying -- (Apple's free speech lets them silence whoever they wish, of course) -- but does that seem <i>right</i> to you?<p>For problems like these I tend to start at the end and work backwards. What would we want an ideal ecosystem to look like? And working backwards, what policies, laws, and cultural rules were made in order to get there? What products were built, and/or sold, in order to build that outcome?<p>Then we do those things.<p>I watch these conversations again and again devolve into whether these companies are monopolies, but I think that discussion is beside the point. <i>Is it right?</i>. Why do I only have 2 choices? Why do I get to choose only between Global Hoover or Comical Evil? And why if I choose one of them, do I give up <i>all choices that follow</i>?<p>Solving problems like these relies on establishing a common ground about what we want to see, and agreeing that what we see isn't that. So -- what do we see wrong now, and what would we fix?