Apple Sued by U.S. Department of Justice, Says Lawsuit is 'Wrong'

[erikkfi]

At Apple, we innovate every day to make technology people love—designing products that work seamlessly together, protect people’s privacy and security, and ensure that we can exploit on-device app distribution monopolies to maximize profit and stifle competition, wait Siri, don’t include that last part, hello, please don’t publish, Siri STOP—

 

[toobravetosave]

simple really

if apple wants to release apps on their own platform that compete with the market at large those apps shouldnt be given special advantages in the ios platform that only apple can control

 

[Darth Tulhu]

I really don't understand the so-called "Apple monopoly" premise.

 

[Jamie0003]

Here come the Apple defender squad.

Won’t somebody please think of the trillion dollar companies!

 

[transpo1]

Is there a legal difference between defend and vigorously defend? Why do people always add vigorously? I assume no one wants to casually defend themselves? Or do they think this adds a note of indignation? If so, why always vigorously instead of some other word?

It’s the legal equivalent of “go to h3ll”

 

[ghanwani]

They will settle for a slap-on-the-wrist fine.

I think Apple's growth is in trouble moving forward. They have nothing right now to grow (AVR looks like is has flopped) and they are facing lawsuits from all sides which will hit their revenues in a permanent way (e.g. lower revenue from App store) and profitability.

My fear is they will start selling user data to make up for it.

 

[vipergts2207]

So far Apple is 0-1-1 with the DOJ.

Justice Department Requires Six High Tech Companies to Stop Entering into Anticompetitive Employee Solicitation Agreements

The Department of Justice announced today that it has reached a settlement with six high technology companies–Adobe Systems Inc., Apple Inc., Google Inc., Intel Corp., Intuit Inc. and Pixar–that prevents them from entering into no solicitation agreements for employees.

www.justice.gov

Supreme Court Rejects Apple's Request to Review E-Books Antitrust Conspiracy Findings

This is archived content from the U.S. Department of Justice website. The information here may be outdated and links may no longer function. Please contact webmaster@usdoj.gov if you have any questions about the archive site.

www.justice.gov

 

[truthsteve]

Got something to back up this claim? I mean, you or someone must have surveyed every single developer to arrive at that conclusion, otherwise you're just pulling it out of your rear.

lol at thinking I need to survey "every single developer" to backup a subjective term "many".

should have highlighted "most customers" to really nail me. even then, you don't need survey every single customer to statistically conclude if that's true or not. but too late now.

 

[Brandon916]

All Apple needs to do is allow iOS devices to be computers. Like the Mac, let me install software I want, even if Apple doesn’t like the content.

I don't know why people are so up in arms about this. Apple's laptop can download anything they want. No issue. But on a phone which is just like a pc, why not?

 

[UltimaKilo]

Meanwhile, many developers are fine with 15%/30% cut and most customers are fine with a single App Store to find all of their apps.

As usual, gov trying to control someone else's success for no reason. Huge overstep.

People at the Justice Department needs to search for big headline things to do in order to justify their jobs.

 

[CrapShack]

The DOJ and the EU are DETERMINED to make your iPhone a malware-ridden piece of crap; as enjoyable to use as a desktop computer from 1998.

 

[avkills]

Yes, it will— because people who don’t know any better will download apps or click on a link that installs something outside of the App Store and boom! Then they will complain about less security.

Doesn't that already happen with computers. I think being naive is no longer a valid argument. Apple should adamantly warn people about side loading apps and I bet Apple will add legal wording in the UA so they are not responsible for whatever happens if one decides to side load.

 

[chrisone]

Meanwhile, many developers are fine with 15%/30% cut and most customers are fine with a single App Store to find all of their apps.

As usual, gov trying to control someone else's success for no reason. Huge overstep.

Do you remember when the evil government went after Microsoft for their monopoly incl. forcing some options for browsers? Do you remember if that helped Apple, or if Apple supported it? Do you remember if forcing some changes there lead to a worse situation for consumers?

 

[avkills]

The DOJ and the EU are DETERMINED to make your iPhone a malware-ridden piece of crap; as enjoyable to use as a desktop computer from 1998.

Ummm, Apple isn't going to ship any iPhones or iPads with malware, so that is a weak argument.

 

[chrisone]

The DOJ and the EU are DETERMINED to make your iPhone a malware-ridden piece of crap; as enjoyable to use as a desktop computer from 1998.

The DOJ and EU are determined to *give you the choice* if you want to make your iPhone a malware ridden piece of crap or not.

 

[StuBeck]

I wonder, but Apple is being shaken down for by the Biden administration.

This started before Biden was president.

 

[ACHD]

Meanwhile, many developers are fine with 15%/30% cut and most customers are fine with a single App Store to find all of their apps.

As usual, gov trying to control someone else's success for no reason. Huge overstep.

Not really or there wouldn't be such large traction....

 

[Brandon916]

If Steve Jobs was alive today, he would’ve used every single amount of his personal money to defend Apple and his name.

DOJ is doing the wrong thing. Suing Apple will destroy the US tech industry in the long run.

If Apple loses, Apple will likely shut down in retaliation. See how that will destroy US tech industry.

Steve Job conspired w/ other publishers to fixing book prices. He's no angel and isn't a friend to consumers. That is why the govt had to step in and fine them. Not to mention Apple got together w/ many of the top tech companies to surpress employees salary. Got fine for that too.

 

[webkit]

Meanwhile, many developers are fine with 15%/30% cut and most customers are fine with a single App Store to find all of their apps.

As usual, gov trying to control someone else's success for no reason. Huge overstep.

I wouldn't say they are "fine" with it. Because iOS controls such a notable part of the mobile OS market (over 60% in the U.S.), I'd say it's more like iOS app developers "tolerate" the commission. They don't leave because it's too big of a market to just walk away from and there is no other way to access that major market segment other than the App Store.

There is no "huge oversetp."

 

[IlluminatedSage]

Firstly, I like Apple and have many friends who work there at corporate.

That said, they do act in an anti-competitive walled garden manner which severely limits owners of Apple products

IPads, iPhones and other devices ought to allow third party installed software. The restriction was done to make the Apple ecosystem the only way to buy, pay and manage content/applications. It’s been used to censor as well.

It’s clearly time to treat these devices the same as Mac computers, hell their power is much greater than what computers used to have.

 

[spercharged69]

Got something to back up this claim? I mean, you or someone must have surveyed every single developer to arrive at that conclusion, otherwise you're just pulling it out of your rear.

Mobile developer here with apps and games on iOS and Android. For our Android side we use a service that distributes our apps out to all the different third party app stores between the Samsung store and a bunch of similar regional / brand specific stores. We make roughly 99% of our revenue from Google Play.

I am totally fine with Apple and Google's 15% / 30% cut because that's where the customers are. Sure, some of these other Android stores offer better rates, but, uhh, who cares about saving 5% on $17 worth of sales? It's irrelevant comparatively.

It's made no sense to me why Apple has been fighting this hard, as iOS with third party App Stores will be the same. There will be no noticeable migration of users to other platforms and any money lost would be a rounding error.

 

[sw1tcher]

There goes Lina Khan demonstrating again to the whole world she has no idea what US antitrust law is or how technology works. Apple has plenty of anti-competitive practices that need to be addressed, but this ain't it.

Lina Khan heads the Federal Trade Commission.

This case isn't solely being brought against Apple by the FTC. The DoJ as well as 16 attorneys generals are involved as well. The FTC doesn't tell the DoJ or an attorneys general what to do.

 

[WiseAJ]

DOJ just loves to lose and prove they are ineffective. This case is DOA.

 

[truthsteve]

Do you remember when the evil government went after Microsoft for their monopoly incl. forcing some options for browsers? Do you remember if that helped Apple, or if Apple supported it?

I remember Microsoft having 90%+ global marketshare. Apple currently does not.
I remember customers didn't have a single good alternative PC operating system to choose from. Customers have a choice of Android or iOS.

 

[ACHD]

The DOJ and the EU are DETERMINED to make your iPhone a malware-ridden piece of crap; as enjoyable to use as a desktop computer from 1998.

So you can install any app on a mac.... and its not a infested domain of the world.

So............

Already proven thats not really what happens.