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Yesterday, the US government filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the company is creating a monopoly with customers and developers paying the price.
Ouch.
This is the start of a very long road. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a right old can of worms, and Apple is, unsurprisingly, rather pissed off. That means an almighty back-and-forth is about to take place for, one would expect, several years.
The ramifications for Apple being found guilty are significant. It could change the way Apple products interact with each other, open up the doors to the Apple ecosystem for all and sundry, and significantly alter the way we use our Apple devices.
It’s therefore no wonder that Apple immediately stood firm with its opening defence yesterday, claiming that the lawsuit sets a “dangerous precedent, empowering government to take a heavy hand in designing people’s technology”.
As always, this news got me thinking about how I use Apple’s stuff, and the timing is spookily relevant.
Takeaways from the US Apple lawsuit
To save you some time researching and reading the avalanche of news articles that hit the internet yesterday following the DOJ’s filing, the essence of the complaint can be boiled down pretty quickly.
It’s all about the iPhone. Apple’s smartphone, apparently, sits at the heart of an ecosystem which, according to the first paragraph of the filing, enables Apple to make it “harder or more expensive for its users and developers to leave than by making it more attractive for them to stay.”
As a result, the DOJ suggests that users and developers are “locked in”, while Apple focuses on “protecting its profits”.
There are several areas cited by the DOJ in which it believes Apple is unfairly taking control. For instance, blocking “innovative super apps” (answers on a postcard, please, although I assume they’re referring to the big players who refuse to bow to Apple’s App Store terms), disallowing certain streaming apps (such as cloud-based gaming platforms), and limiting the functionality of third-party wallets.
Even the presence of green message bubbles is being drawn into question. During yesterday’s press conference, US Attorney General Merrick Garland suggested that “iPhone users perceive rival smartphones to be of lower quality” due to conversations with Android users lacking encryption. The fact that Apple will soon support the RCS messaging standard appears to be too little, too late, for the DOJ.
Even the Apple Watch has been called into question, with the filing suggesting that Apple is “diminishing the functionality of non-Apple smartwatches” and leaving Apple Watch owners out of pocket “if they do not keep buying iPhones”.
On that last point: eh?
Anyway, what does this all mean?
The Apple ecosystem is a problem…
The DOJ has a point – the Apple ecosystem is a problem. I’ve talked about this a lot in my recent YouTube videos where I’ve tested the latest Android smartphones.
I’m wedged frustratingly into the Apple ecosystem. I’ve been ensconced in it for so long, that it’s actually pretty hard to find a way out. It frustrates me. It bothers me. It makes me feel a bit weak, at times, as I watch others happily (on the surface, at least) leap from Apple’s grasp into the welcoming arms of the foreign lands of Samsung’s ecosystem.
The reason Apple’s ecosystem locks in people like me is because it genuinely just works. I run a business that operates to tight deadlines and timescales from a production standpoint, and I’m yet to find a bunch of devices that serve me better, when connected, for video, audio, and text production. Apple has always nailed this for me, and seemingly innocuous features such as the ability to copy and paste between devices are intrinsically built into my daily workflow.
For anyone who can’t be bothered to look elsewhere, or who likes stuff that just works, the Apple ecosystem is a dream to use. Expensive, yes, but you get what you pay for. That is Apple’s target market, but it’s also why this lawsuit has raised its ugly head.
However, the Apple ecosystem isn’t the only problem here.
…but so are the users (i.e. ME)
Nothing is stopping me from turning off my iPhone today and switching full-time to the Samsung S24 Ultra.
No one is forcing me to use my MacBook Pro for video editing. I could ditch it tomorrow and learn how to use DaVinci Resolve on a Windows laptop.
My left wrist isn’t demanding that I always wear an Apple Watch Ultra.
The list goes on.
There are alternatives for all of this stuff. I just can’t be arsed to change, and I have limited time to do so. That’s my fault and my decision – not Apple’s.
A case in point – I have switched from the Apple Watch Ultra – possibly for a very long time. On my wrist at the moment resides the Garmin MARQ Commander. It’s a review unit which will at some point need to be returned, but I have absolutely no desire to return to the Apple Watch Ultra. Apple isn’t locking me in there at all (and I thought they had).
If I think about this lawsuit in terms of how it might relate to my business, it’s like suggesting that I’m locking people into my content because I don’t work with the competition. That’s daft – people have their own minds and can quite happily take a break from watching my stuff if they fancy digging into someone else’s opinion. I may not want Creator X to appear on my channel, but that doesn’t mean my audience can’t tune into their content.
Equally, if a great many people love Apple’s products, is that really a problem? What if they genuinely don’t have an interest in other platforms, products, and services? Who’s losing out there? More importantly, whose fault is it that their head isn’t being turned?
Final thought
As noted earlier, this is the start of a very long road and one that’s going to have many twists and turns.
It’s hard to ignore the potential outcomes if Apple loses, though.
Imagine if the Apple ecosystem was opened up completely to third parties. How long would it take for some of those third-party developers and platforms to completely trash it?
What about security and privacy? Apple’s ecosystem is built on a hard, user-focused stance on those two areas, and any opening of their walled garden could have serious ramifications.
Grab the popcorn, folks – this is going to get spicy.
