And if Apple uses the App Store for Evil?

Ian Betteridge wonders if the iTunes App Store will create a monopoly

But what happens if Apple’s market share grows to the point where it has a monopoly – 70-, 80- or even 90% market share? That might take ten years, but it’s certainly not beyond the realms of possibility, and it’s certainly something that Apple would like to have.
At that point, does Apple’s control over third-party applications become an abuse of a monopoly – something that is, of course, illegal in both Europe and the US?

There are a lot of ‘ifs’ in that prediction of doom.

We have to face facts – we had a large and aggressive abuse of monopoly in the US and the EU and the governments did sod all to stop it and, were it not for consumers and the general downturn of the market, the monopoly abuse would be worse today.

Apple can decide to do this but they’re unlikely to start in ten years. We need to see what applications have been denied before we start worrying about whether Apple’s vetting team (which they refer to as a QA team) is going to do things that are bad for the ecosystem.