is mac the next microsoft?

good techno-patent article in wired. give a read. here's the gist:

So it may be convenient for me to get shows on demand, but this comes at a price. My TV is tied intimately to the Comcast DVR box I rent, and I lose some of my consumer rights (saving shows, watching them on a different device) so that the entertainment industry can protect its old business models.

Enter Apple, which may soon strike deals with the TV networks and video production houses that will see hundreds of TV shows, documentaries, music videos and so on, hosted on an iTunes music and movie store -- accessed only though Apple's software or hardware, like the Mac mini.

If such a scenario comes true, Apple will become more and more powerful as the gatekeeper to this content. And it will behave like every other big, powerful global corporation -- as a predatory monopoly.

There are few Mac users prepared to argue that Microsoft's monopoly in desktop PCs has been a good thing for the technology industry; why would an Apple monopoly of digital entertainment be any different?