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Apple doesn’t apologize those little blue bubbles. The company told Quartz this week: Department of Justice’s massive antitrust lawsuit This is basically everything about Apple’s ubiquitous iPhone, but it’s misleading.
The Justice Department said in a lawsuit filed last week that Apple created a monopoly in the smartphone market, inhibiting both direct competitors and developers of apps, super apps, smart watches and digital wallets. The complaint lists 210 allegations against the tech giant. The newspaper said that Apple “repeatedly chooses to make its products worse for consumers in order to prevent the emergence of competition,” all to protect its smartphone monopoly and the “exorbitant profits that monopolies generate.” said.
But Apple told Quartz on Thursday that some of the facts revealed by the Justice Department are simply not true. He summarized the company’s counterarguments.
Apple said it had no monopoly and had never heard of a “high-performance” smartphone.
A big part of the Justice Department’s argument is that Apple has a 70% share of the “high-end” smartphone market, which it defines as the “more expensive segment of the broader smartphone market.” According to the complaint, Apple has a 65% market share of the entire U.S. smartphone market.
read more: Apple’s rough 2024 timeline (so far)
But Apple said the Justice Department’s use of market share was flawed. revenue – Nevertheless How is market share typically calculated?. Apple’s market share is unit That’s less than half of the US market.
Apple said it didn’t know what a smartphone’s “performance” was and that the Justice Department used the term to inflate the company’s market share.
Apple said it’s not squeezing third-party app developers
The Justice Department’s lawsuit pointed out that Apple charges a 30% fee as a way to restrict applications from developers outside of its influential App Store.
“Apple believes that while the community of developers and accessory manufacturers is essential to the success of the iPhone, by allowing consumers to ‘think differently’ and choose fully functional products, the company “Apple is acutely aware that it also poses an existential threat to its extraordinary profits,” the complaint states. , a cheaper alternative smartphone. ”
Because Apple only charges fees for paid apps, 85% of developers said they don’t pay fees to the company. It also pointed out that the majority of developers who pay commissions are eligible for discounts.
Apple says no one wants green bubbles in text messages
The Justice Department argued that Apple’s decision to make iMessage unavailable on other smartphones was an example of monopoly. The Justice Department said Apple is throttling competing messaging apps on its operating system by not allowing access to SMS, a more versatile text messaging protocol.
“Apple limits the reach of third-party messaging apps, reinforcing network effects that benefit Apple,” the complaint says.
The result is the following dynamics: Blue bubbles carry cultural capital. For example, in a group text message chat that includes both an iPhone user and her Android user, texts from the Android user will appear in green bubbles instead of blue bubbles on his iPhone. This comes with prejudice. especially for young users.
Apple responded in a statement to Quartz that other messaging apps, such as WhatsApp, have been very successful on iOS, which is proof that the company is open to other companies’ products. Apple also points out that WhatsApp and Signal do not support SMS Even on Android smartphones.
Google uses RCS, a descendant of SMS, and Apple uses announced that it would adopt RCS. It starts this fall.
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