You have it the other way around. It's not so much about apple wanting to monopolize the marketplace as it is about apple defending its own platform. The discussion is platform-centric.
Today Amazon's application on the iPhone sells books. Tomorrow it may sell music and maybe some day even applications (if I am to believe that jail breaking is now legal in the US).
Apple wants to the be "front platform". Any platform that sits in front (or "top" if you prefer) has the upper hand. Browsers sit on top of the operating system and Microsoft tried hard to dwarf browser growth as it threatened the OS itself. In fact, Java's ambitions were similar. Flash is just that. Adobe AIR has already made minor inroads. This is also in line with Jobs' decision to disallow Flash and Java. If Macromedia sold iPhone applications, iTunes would lose gravity.
The case here is a similar one. If vendors build their own stores through their application, iTunes will inevitably crumble. Apple is making a really long term bet that will without a doubt encounter a lot of resistance. But in the long term it wants to perfect the business model.
It will be a first if it works, but it's tricky. Platforms need to be open enough to allow others to build on top but Apple has developed a very unique platform. Unlike Flash or Windows or whatever else, Apple is the gatekeeper for the entire ecosystem. That means it can regulate the platform while others cannot.
Apple has been architecting it's platforms strategy for quite some time now. It is trying to build the perfectly sustainable platform. I am almost certain that they have secret discussions on "platforms architecture".
Today Amazon's application on the iPhone sells books. Tomorrow it may sell music and maybe some day even applications (if I am to believe that jail breaking is now legal in the US).
Apple wants to the be "front platform". Any platform that sits in front (or "top" if you prefer) has the upper hand. Browsers sit on top of the operating system and Microsoft tried hard to dwarf browser growth as it threatened the OS itself. In fact, Java's ambitions were similar. Flash is just that. Adobe AIR has already made minor inroads. This is also in line with Jobs' decision to disallow Flash and Java. If Macromedia sold iPhone applications, iTunes would lose gravity.
The case here is a similar one. If vendors build their own stores through their application, iTunes will inevitably crumble. Apple is making a really long term bet that will without a doubt encounter a lot of resistance. But in the long term it wants to perfect the business model.
It will be a first if it works, but it's tricky. Platforms need to be open enough to allow others to build on top but Apple has developed a very unique platform. Unlike Flash or Windows or whatever else, Apple is the gatekeeper for the entire ecosystem. That means it can regulate the platform while others cannot.
Apple has been architecting it's platforms strategy for quite some time now. It is trying to build the perfectly sustainable platform. I am almost certain that they have secret discussions on "platforms architecture".
Exciting stuff.