Apple, AT&T and Antitrust

In California, a federal judge has ruled that an antitrust class action suit can proceed against Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and AT&T (NYSE: T). What have those companies done to warrant being hauled into court? Basically, they agreed to sell only "locked" iPhones. A locked phone is one that works only on a specific mobile network -- in this case, AT&T's network.

So, let's get this straight. Both Apple and AT&T want to make money. Apple makes money by creating cool mobile devices like the iPhone -- creating, as in designing and manufacturing phones that didn't exist before Apple's brilliant designers and engineers thought of them. AT&T makes money by creating a mobile phone network -- creating, as in erecting a complex array of electronic equipment capable of transmitting messages from handheld phones, a network that didn't exist before AT&T created it.

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