Apple Monopoly Debate

Banned on what grounds? Apple doesn't have a monopoly, so there's no anticompetitive angle here.

Doing something like that is illegal if you have a monopoly. Apple doesn't (or even majority market share).

Apple have managed to get themselves into a monopolistic position. Actually it's a duopoly. It doesn't matter if there are alternatives to Android and iPhone, those are the majority of devices to something like 99%. If you want to access that marketplace you need to go through one of those 2 gatekeepers and they have similar rules. This is the exact kind of situation that monopoly laws are there to address. Apple have been hugely successful. No-one is proposing to take the success away

It is illegal only when Apple owns the majority of the market share, that is, a monopoly. When iPhone users constituted more than 90% of all smart phone users, such practice would be illegal. Right now, Apple can argue that a tight controlled App Store is vital to their success, and any consumer who disagrees can simply switch to their competitor, Android.

There has been several prominent cases where Apple removed some app from the store just to bring out an app in the same space. Also Apple products don't have the same restrictions as others when in comes to ads, api etc. To me that sounds quite clearly like like they are abusing their monopoly position.

Holding a monopoly and engaging in anti-competitive behavior are entirely different.The app store being closed and not allowing 3rd party stores would be considered anti-competitive. They have a 100% monopoly on the ios application market.I don't think they're doing much anti-competitive in the phone hardware space though.

One of the conditions of the apple app store, the single entry to any customer's smartphone, is that you don't directly compete with any apple app.What more do you really need to know ? If this isn't abuse of monopoly power, then what is ?

Apple is a monopolist for the iOS App Store. The eco-system is controlled by them using their rules and they compete with others in the same app space. The whole thing is rigged to the extent that an anti-competitive investigation should be done into the market place by the Justice dept.

Apple does not have a monopoly dominant position. In my country I think they are like 10% of the market. You can't abuse your dominant position if you don't have one.

Because Apple is not close to having a monopoly like Google?