Massive US Antitrust Lawsuit Targets Apple's iPhone Ecosystem

Blockbuster U.S. antitrust lawsuit targets Apple's iPhone monopoly

The Department of Justice and 16 state attorneys, who's throwing their cursor on in the Google Docs

I've got to read this thing. I guarantee you it's Lewis. What

Don't deny this. The Department of Justice and 16 state attorneys general filed an antitrust lawsuit Thursday aimed at forcing Apple to open up many aspects of its ecosystem from the app store to the Apple watch

The suit which accuses Apple of wielding monopoly-like power, could bring truly sweeping changes to iPhone, Mac, and other Apple computers

The DOJ explicitly targets the iPhone, calling the device key to Apple's dominance of a wide variety of industries

The suit accuses Apple of engaging in, quote, anti-competitive and exclusionary conduct

and seeks to restore competition that would lower smartphone prices, reducing developer fees, and preserve, quote, innovation for the future

The DOJ cited the lack of an Android app to synchronize with Apple Watch

as an example of Cooper Tino's anti-competitive behavior. And it accused the iPhone maker of stifling what it calls super apps

The Department of Justice said, quote, Apple has disrupted the growth of apps with

broad functionality that would make it easier for consumers to switch between competing

smartphone platforms. It gave no examples of these though The iPhone maker refusal to allow other payment systems access to iPhone tap system also came under fire quote inhibiting the creation of cross third digital wallets according to the Justice Department

In addition, regulators object to an Apple policy that blocked cloud gaming services from the App Store

That might explain why Apple reversed this rule earlier. Oh, yeah. I think they have been trying to prevent this for some time now

Yeah. I message also came. up with the Justice Department alleging Apple has made the quality of cross-platform messaging

worse, less innovative, and less secure for users, so its customers have to keep buying iPhones

That I have a hard time believing, but I'm getting it. I think the exact opposite is actually

true, and I think the government hates them for it. It's just been held back by the fact that

SMS is a terrible standard. And you know what? Apple is already adopting RCS next year, and they

announced that in advance. So whatever. Moving on, the Justice Department's lawsuit is seeking an

unspecified financial penalty. It also wants the court to order Apple to open up messages, which Apple, quote, undermines

with blue bubbles on Android. That's... Allow cloud streaming apps and alternative digital wallets with direct NFC access and more

In Epic Games 2020 lawsuit over App Store restrictions, Apple successfully argued that the App Store

greatly benefited users by protecting against malware and fraud Apple also argued that the App Store doesn lock in consumers who could easily switch between iPhone and Android So the crux of this case that I think the Department of

Justice is going to have a hard time justifying is that at the core of this, Apple isn't an monopoly

The U.S. is their strongest market and they only have a 55% share. If you read through their document

at some points they try to carve out like a very niche market so that they can define Apple as being

a monopoly, saying that if you add in Apple and Samsung, which doesn't make

Samsung is a competitor, if you add them both together and you only look at the smartphone

market over $700, which is supposedly a completely different market, then they combined have 90% share

which it's like saying oh, a cult of Mac has a monopoly

on Apple Tech journalism. If you only consider independent blogs and you add us together with 9 to 5 Mac and Mac rumors

That's what I think about that. Sorry. Yeah, they're being very specific in their definition

and I don't think that the definition meets the true definition of a monopoly, as you just said

And there are other ecosystems that you could go to. Now, I think that some of their points are actually legitimate

although I don't know if these things that they do are illegal

such as locking everyone else out of their NFC functionality. Like that a legitimate security concern Like the Apple wallet only has access to that because all of that payment information is stored in secure enclave And Apple doesn want anybody else to access that Although they are starting to open that up a little bit

So I don't know if there are ways that they could do that to make things more secure. It's hard to know where the line is, right

Like I get Apple's argument that they are trying to keep things closed because they don't want to

well, they want to keep you safe and they want to keep their devices secure. Like, I get that. And I think there probably is a element of truth to that

but we also know that it's very convenient that Apple doesn't allow some things

And it's, there's certainly going to be some kind of financial motive involved

And I think the App Store is just such a perfect example of that. Like not letting you install apps outside of the App Store like you can on the Mac

I always use this example because I just feel like it's just absolutely bulletproof

It's like, dude, they let you install apps on the Mac from anywhere. and then they say that they can allow that on the iPhone

because then the iPhone wouldn't be secure. Well, is the Mac not secure? Because I thought the Mac was secure

So which is it? Like you're talking out to both sides of your mouth here. And clearly I think their motivation is because they want to make every single dollar

that they can from the app store. And I think more than anything else

what I think is interesting about this lawsuit, whether or not they win, is Apple is under siege

I mean, this is happening in Europe. We had been talking about this happening here. in the U.S., now it is