In studying the characteristics of firms the concept of barriers to entry is a central one and highlights the fundamental difference between free competition, where there are no barriers, to monopolies, where high barriers to entry safeguard the power of a monopoly to be the price setter.
The article, Apple using iCloud to lock in users after online misfires, argues that Apple is hoping that the release of iCloud will succeed where other internet ventures failed and raise barriers to entry against competitors like Google.
