The US shouldn’t force Apple to make a worse iPhone. Why? because the iPhone is really, really awesome

tech.hindustantimes.com:

The biggest challenge that the Department of Justice has in winning its antitrust case against Apple Inc. is this: The iPhone is really, really awesome.

I'm not trying to be droll. The iPhone's quality, and the way in which Apple continues to make it so, goes to the heart of the case filed against the company on Thursday morning. 

And it makes any potential remedy a touchy subject. Leveling the playing field invariably means adding complication, friction and insecurity to a device that became successful because Apple was able to engineer away all of those things.

Also read: US sues Apple for running iPhone monopoly in wide-ranging lawsuit

Unlike other recent antitrust cases filed against big technology companies, in which regulators have targeted Google's search deal with Apple and Amazon.com Inc.'s tactics on price manipulation, this long-awaited filing against one of the richest US companies seeks to draw strength from its breadth, focusing on several crucial parts of Apple's competitive “moat.”

In sum, the complaint contends: “Apple reinforces the moat around its smartphone monopoly not by making its products more attractive to users, but by discouraging innovation that threatens Apple's smartphone monopoly or the disintermediation of the iPhone.”

I disagree with that framing. As any iPhone user knows, Apple clearly does both: It uses its maniacal control over the user experience on the iPhone to make it a vastly superior smartphone that is more attractive to consumers. But in doing so, it shuts out competitors in a manner that has anticompetitive side effects because of the iPhone's scale. 

Also read: Sam Altman's OpenAI may bring big upgrades with GPT-5; Know how it will improve ChatGPT

Attempts to remedy this situation could be painful, unpopular and have a high chance of failure. Just ask iPhone users in Europe, where regulators enforced their tough new rules to increase mobile browser competition — and all users got was a lousy menu. Hardly a tectonic shift in the