> The cell phone network is the infrastructure just like with your analogy, the road was the infrastructure that given enough capital, anyone can build a car on.
The infrastructure in this analogy is the platform.
You're trying to avoid the consequences by going another level up in the infrastructure. But you can always do that. Wireless networks run on electricity, power plants run on gas pipelines. The issue is that the layers of the infrastructure they do control (devices, operating systems) are being used to limit competition on the adjacent layers (app distribution, apps).
> They add their own spin - foldable phones, ruggedized phones, phones with better cameras and either they manufacturer the phone themselves or use someone like Foxconn to manufacture the phones for them - just like Apple.
Yes of course, they add them when they want to compete with other Android phones. The market for low cost Android handsets is quite competitive.
The issue is that if you want a ruggedized phone that runs iOS on Apple Silicon, or one that has a non-Apple app store, that isn't available. Even if there are both companies interested in making it and customers interested in buying it.
> Everyone says that Google’s phones are premium and some of Samsungs phones. Again whose fault is it that two multi billion dollar companies can’t compete on the high end?
Google is not really even making the attempt. Their interest in Android is to get it on as many phones as possible to promote the use of their services, and for that phones from other OEMs are satisfactory, so what do they care?
Samsung is only a fraction of the size of Apple and punches well above their weight, but there's only so much you can do in a bidding war against someone with more money.
> The infrastructure in this analogy is the platform.
The road carries all types of vehicles from place to place. The cellular network carries data from place to place and any phone can use that network. Different physical manufacturers make stuff to go on the “digital highway”. I didn’t make that term up.
> Yes of course, they add them when they want to compete with other Android phones. The market for low cost Android handsets is quite competitive.
Most of Samsung commercials go after Apple. Samsungs foldable phones costs more than the most expensive iPhone.
> The issue is that if you want a ruggedized phone that runs iOS on Apple Silicon, or one that has a non-Apple app store, that isn't available. Even if there are both companies interested in making it and customers interested in buying it
I also can’t buy a gas powered Tesla.
> Google is not really even making the attempt.
You mean they are spending money creating products and advertising them during the Super Bowl and they don’t care?
> Samsung is only a fraction of the size of Apple and punches well above their weight, but there's only so much you can do in a bidding war against someone with more money.
You realize that Samsung makes its own processors? How much do you really think it costs to design a processor? Just like Microsoft, Samsung was making cell phones before the iPhone even existed and when Apple was basically about to go bankrupt. Whose fault is it that they couldn’t compete with a decade headstart?
The infrastructure in this analogy is the platform.
You're trying to avoid the consequences by going another level up in the infrastructure. But you can always do that. Wireless networks run on electricity, power plants run on gas pipelines. The issue is that the layers of the infrastructure they do control (devices, operating systems) are being used to limit competition on the adjacent layers (app distribution, apps).
> They add their own spin - foldable phones, ruggedized phones, phones with better cameras and either they manufacturer the phone themselves or use someone like Foxconn to manufacture the phones for them - just like Apple.
Yes of course, they add them when they want to compete with other Android phones. The market for low cost Android handsets is quite competitive.
The issue is that if you want a ruggedized phone that runs iOS on Apple Silicon, or one that has a non-Apple app store, that isn't available. Even if there are both companies interested in making it and customers interested in buying it.
> Everyone says that Google’s phones are premium and some of Samsungs phones. Again whose fault is it that two multi billion dollar companies can’t compete on the high end?
Google is not really even making the attempt. Their interest in Android is to get it on as many phones as possible to promote the use of their services, and for that phones from other OEMs are satisfactory, so what do they care?
Samsung is only a fraction of the size of Apple and punches well above their weight, but there's only so much you can do in a bidding war against someone with more money.