Forget sales. Every quarter for the past 10 years, Apple has earned between 75% and 100% of all profits in the entire cellphone industry. http://fortune.com/2016/11/04/apple-smartphone-profits/
posters had the opportunity to debunk the article but were unsuccessful. 30 years of a Bell, enabled government monopoly with lack of progress for private consumers, was the prime example of the downside of government sanctioned private monopolies.
This might be an example of the downside, albeit even in this case there are important caveats that people have pointed out... There's a plethora of examples of enormous upside of government sanctioned private monopolies that resulted in monumental progress for consumers. EDIT: Basically, you're thinking about it all wrong...
There were plenty of mobile phones before the iPhone. This could be down to a generational thing, guys in their mid 40s and above are bemused at the notion that iPhone was somehow the start of significant innovation. The article long and poorly written by someone who seems to be selling to teenagers in school not adults. Landline telephone companies in most countries had a state monopoly for several reason involving the sheer cost but also state security during the cold war. Bell labs were forerunners in pure research that assisted innovation. Why Bell Labs Was So Important To Innovation In The 20th Century https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/...-innovation-in-the-20th-century/#2bb1a3ad7015
it might bolster your remark if you posted a correct link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/...-innovation-in-the-20th-century/#2bb1a3ad7015
That is an exaggeration, it is more true if you mean money that can from the taxpayer as apposed to research that was actually done in government labs.