Apple & Google have unfair 'vice-like grip' on smartphone markets, says UK regulator

Apple and Google are using their market power to create domineering self-contained ecosystems, according to a UK regulator, enabling the tech giants to have a 'vice-like grip' over mobile devices that limits competition.In an interim report on its probe into whether Apple and Google operate a duopoly in the smartphone market with their control over the App Store and Google Play store, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) offers concern that consumers are missing out. The report, published on Tuesday, frames the market as being heavily controlled by the two tech giants, to the detriment of end users.Since mobile users are buying either an iPhone or an Android device, they are entering each company's respective ecosystem, the CMA reckons. This gives Apple and Google control over what is offered to users, and enables them to 'tilt the playing field towards their own services.' Read more...