Apple is the latest tech giant under siege

To understand how much the new U.S. lawsuit strikes at the core of the identity Apple has built for itself, let's first consider the company's fan base.

Apple occupies a unique position as a technology brand, and is viewed with great affection by those who like it.

I've been to a lot of Apple events, both virtual and in-person, and what we journalists always find is that every time a new feature is announced, the audience cheers, no matter how small, and we raise our eyebrows. , to cheers. It was announced as incremental.

When a new hardware product is released, Apple employees form a guard of honor outside the store and applaud the first buyers. Some of you may have spent hours camping outdoors and spent thousands of dollars (who else can get away with a $3,500 bill?) / £3,499 for a VR headset? ).

People get tattoos of Apple's distinctive fruit logo. Symbols for Windows, Google, and ChatGPT seem to be less popular.

“Apple is like a strange drug that you can't get enough of,” Leander Carney wrote in his 2006 book, The Cult of Mac.

As Apple said in a statement Thursday, it's this “strange drug” or “magical experience” that is now being condemned.

So far, Apple's ethos has been a highly successful business model. As I write, the company is worth $2.6 trillion.

Analytics firm CCS Insight estimates that 72% of smartphones purchased in North America alone in the past three months of 2023 were iPhones. Samsung gained 25%, leaving other companies in the mobile phone business with only 3%.

One of Apple's big selling points is its focus on privacy and security. But the question is whether it can achieve that by crowding out its competitors.

This regularly blocks web trackers. While this is frustrating for web users, it is also an important source of revenue for other digital businesses.

It also operates a “walled garden.” This means all his Apple products work together seamlessly and all apps, payment methods, and operating system updates are vetted and approved by the tech giant. This is effectively a closed ecosystem and remains secure.

Developers are furious that they have to pay a fee and follow Apple's strict rules to enter. But Apple claims that in return it gets access to a huge market of potential customers.

Two major commercial names, music streaming platform Spotify and Fortnite developer Epic Games, are vocally opposed to this. Fortnite has been removed from the App Store, but Spotify hasn't gone that far. Probably because it has millions of iPhone-based subscribers.

Apple's biggest smartphone rival is Google's Android, which is much more expansive. That operating system must work on dozens of different devices made by different manufacturers over the years. The result is more choice for consumers, but necessarily less safety.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is not the only authority that has decided to take a closer look at Apple's unique position.

The tech giant has opened its doors very reluctantly twice before, and both times it was because of the European Union.

We were recently forced to publish to other app stores in Europe. It did so with great hesitation, with many warnings about the evil that lurks outside its own digital paradise.

Until recently, the iPhone didn't even use the same charging cable as almost everything else. Most models required a custom-made lightning cable. But the EU has introduced common charger regulations, and Apple now sells Lightning cable adapters, converting its latest models to the far more popular USB-C port.

However, the Department of Justice does not have the same authority.

This is a court process that requires persuading a judge, and there has been little track record of success in that regard.

“The last time a US court found a Big Tech company guilty of monopoly was back in 2001 (Microsoft),” said Anne Witt, a law professor at France's EDHEC Business School.

It was about the superiority of Microsoft's web browser, Internet Explorer, which is installed by default on millions of machines running Windows.

However, it's worth remembering that Apple isn't holding customers hostage and forcing them into a hug.

“All the lawsuits against Apple portray users as consumers without free will. I really struggle with that,” said Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies, a technology industry analysis firm.

I know some of my friends who use iPhones dismiss it as “boring” to switch to a different brand, even if they like the look of a different one.

But that doesn't mean Apple is actively blocking them. But CEO Tim Cook's once-desperate comments are now coming back to haunt him.

One reporter said in an interview that he was unable to share the video with his mother, who had a different cell phone.

“Buy your mom an iPhone,” Apple's CEO joked.

Apple has vowed to fight the lawsuit “vigorously” and denies the allegations.