In fact, if you look at the civil suit brought against Apple by the Department of Justice, the government seems to be going to great lengths to justify some of the charges. The Justice Department, along with 16 state and local attorneys general, allege that Apple has a monopoly on the smartphone business. To prove this point, the lawsuit accuses Apple of erecting barriers that prevent some companies from entering the smartphone business.
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Bloomberg’s Mark Garman pointed this out in a tweet. How ridiculous some of the government’s claims are. For example, the lawsuit alleges that Apple’s monopolistic practices are behind the failure of the Amazon Fire Phone. According to the suit, Amazon launched the Firephone in 2014, but was “unable to sustain the business profitably and withdrew the following year.” Huh? Fire Phone died on its own.
First, the Fire Phone used a forked version of Android and didn’t have the Google Play Store. Perhaps that alone kept many consumers from purchasing the device. Amazon sold just 26,000 units overall and wrote off $170 million in unsold inventory. The phone’s original contract price was $200, but AT&T lowered the price to 99 cents with a two-year contract. Because the Fire Phone was an AT&T exclusive, sales of the device were also limited.
Justice Department makes outlandish claims against Apple
The truth is, Apple and the iPhone had nothing to do with the poor performance of the Fire Phone, which is probably the second-worst smartphone ever released after the BlackBerry Storm. Indeed, the iPhone had nothing to do with Amazon’s decision to go out of business the following year.
Amazon Fire Phone failed, but it wasn’t Apple or the iPhone’s fault
The Justice Department also cited Microsoft’s failures with Windows Phone (all due to Microsoft’s failure to get app developers to develop for the platform) and the inability of HTC and LG to remain viable smartphone manufacturers. I blamed Apple for this. HTC and LG’s problems had nothing to do with the iPhone and everything to do with Samsung’s dominance of the high-end Android market.
The Justice Department’s complaint goes on to say, “Currently, the only significant competitors remaining in the U.S. high-performance smartphone market are Samsung and Google. Barriers are so high that Google controls Android development. Yet Google remains a distant third behind Apple and Samsung.” operating system. “
The 16 state and local attorneys general who have filed suit, likely with the Justice Department, allege that Amazon was behind the Fire Phone fiasco, and that Microsoft failed to get app developers to create a well-stocked app storefront. You need to understand that what they did led to the demise of Windows Phone. , and Samsung’s superior Galaxy S line doomed HTC and LG. HTC also failed to include decent cameras in its phones and used low-capacity batteries in its high-end phones.
The lawsuit can be found here. Go to paragraph 186 to see the shockingly ridiculous claims made by the Department of Justice.
