Modular Confines of Mobile Networks: Are iPhones iPhony?

Thomas W. Hazlett

Supreme Court Economic Review, 2011, vol. 19, issue 1, 67 - 102

Abstract: Investments by wireless carriers and others are transforming the “mobile ecology,” increasing modularity even while extending vertical controls. Innovation “at the edge” is vibrant, with smartphone suppliers Research in Motion (Blackberry), Apple (iPhone), and Google (via Android software), among others, driving carrier alliances and platform rivalry. That vertical coordination, controversial in some quarters, generates welfare gains is revealed via an examination of consumer preferences, the advanced state of technology under “strong bundling” in Japan, and the fact that even ostensibly “open” platforms retain important, efficiency-enhancing vertical controls.

Date: 2011
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