Is there anyone in the year 2024 who doesn’t own a smartphone? To put it in technical terms, there is an estimated 6.94 billion smartphones worldwide. That is roughly 85% of the 8 billion estimated global population. So now the real question to ask is, how many smartphone users have an iPhone?
We’re not hear to start the age old iPhone vs Android debate. In fact, we have some news Apple won’t be happy about.
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is suing the tech giant over claims of “illegally monopolizing the smartphone market.” The DOJ is joined in the lawsuit by nearly a dozen state attorney generals. Attorney General Merrick Garland claims Apple “has maintained monopoly power in the smartphone market not simply by staying ahead of the competition on the merits, but by violating federal antitrust law. Consumers should not have to pay higher prices become companied break the law.”
The lawsuit states that “rather than respond to competitive threats by offering lower smartphone prices to consumers or better monetization for developers, Apple would meet competitive threats by imposing a series of shapeshifting rules and restrictions in its App Store guidelines and developer agreements that would allow Apple to extract higher fees, thwart innovation, offer a less secure or degraded user experience and throttle competitive alternatives.”
This is the latest DOJ lawsuit against a tech giant, as Meta, Google, and Amazon have also been sued. The DOJ included that Apple’s monopoly on smartphones has the potential to extend into entertainment. “For example, Apple is rapidly expanding its influence and growing its power in the automotive, content creation and entertainment, and financial services industries – and often by doing so in exclusionary ways that further reinforce and deepen the competitive moat around the iPhone.”
Apple responded to the lawsuit, claiming it “threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets. If successful, it would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from apple – where hardware, software and services intersect.” The company further claimed the lawsuit “would also set a dangerous precedent, empowering government to take a heavy hand in designing people’s technology.”
Possible Proof of Shutting Out Competition?
Back in 2010, the Steve Jobs era, there was an ad for Amazon Kindle that Apple did not look favorably on. In the ad, a woman can be seen purchasing books through the Kindle app on her iPhone. She is the seen switching to an Android smartphone and continuing her reading. The lawsuit alleges a top executive for Apple emailed Jobs about the ad. The email is alleged to contain, “message that can’t be missed is that it is easy to switch from iPhone to Android. Not fun to watch.”
“Jobs was clear in his response: Apple would ‘force’ developers to use its payment system to lock in both developers and users on its platform. Over many years, Apple has repeatedly responded to competitive threats like this one by making it harder or more expensive for its users and developers to leave than by making it more attractive for them to stay,” the lawsuit reads.
There is some merit in this, as you cannot purchase books through the Kindle app on the iPhone. Apple is also alleged of purposely making its service more difficult to operate with Android phones. Green message bubbles, grainy videos, or even an inability to send messages to non-Apple products is pretty damning.
“Today, Apple charges as much as $1,599 for an iPhone and earns high margins on each one, more than double those of others in the industry,” the lawsuit claims. “When developers imagine a new product or service for iPhone consumers, Apple demands up to 30 percent of the price of an app whose content, product, or service it did not create.”
We will follow this story and update as information is made available.
