There are no other platforms on the devices. Saying I can buy another house if I could only choose one electricity provider or ISP isn't a good defense (in those cases either).
Just look at how big ATVI's mobile gaming revenue is: it rivals (and sometimes beats) the revenue from their "core" products (a'la Call of Duty).
I was more talking about the size of the current install base of the platforms (iOS, Xbox etc) though.
And if that second install base is 8B, and even if only 10% of them play a game, that's still an 800M user market - which is bloody huge.
The actual percentage of game players is significantly higher - some online queries put it at of 50% of smartphone users. That's a potential market of over 4B if we use your assumptions.
Additionally, if you own a phone, you have the potential to buy a game at any time. You just need to be converted (and Apple puts a lot of effort into that in their app store). It's also much lower friction to get a game on a phone than a standard computer (which is, admittedly, pretty low to begin with).
It's what allows Apple have more game-related revenue than Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo combined.
Music, check. Videos (including streaming platforms), check. Games, triple-check. Browser, check. Apps to make games, check. Exploitative apps, check.
No Kindle/Kobe readers though. Unfortunate, that.
It's forced Internet Explorer on Windows, except 100 times worse because it permeates through the entire platform.
You can't get any other storefronts because that wouldn't funnel money to them. You can't get any game streaming apps, because see first point.
They're general purpose devices in anything that makes them money, and nothing else. It's not because they won't spend money to introduce that functionality, but that they specifically spend money on denying that functionality.
AOL won a suit against Microsoft for integrating IE in Windows. How on Earth is Apple any better? Just to make an add-on point they even force every other browser on iOS to use webkit.
Love it, hate it, they have their value.
Do you think the ruling in AOL v Microsoft was wrong?
You completely dodged that aspect by linking to a comment about games consoles.
So much freedom! I get to market my stuff to poor people and picky, principled tech users.
We haven't seen the last antitrust case against them. I'm certainly looking forward to them getting knocked down a few pegs. Only a stool pigeon would defend their behavior.