Apple iPhone 14 Pro ( left over ) and iPhone 15 Pro MaxAndy Boxall / Digital Trends
If you ’re take this clause , chance are you have aniPhone . It ’s also quite potential that your friends and family member also use an iPhone . The iPhone isthesmartphone of pick for millions of multitude in the U.S. , and now , the Department of Justice ( DOJ ) is suing Apple over the alleged iPhone monopoly it has found over the years .
Why is this chance ? What does it think for you and your iPhone ? Here ’s a fast breakdown of what you take to know .
Why Apple is being sued
We ’ll start with the biggest question first : Why is Apple being sued ? On March 21 , the DOJ and 16 state / territorial dominion attorney litigate Apple over allegations that the society is execute its iPhone business as an illegal monopoly .
In the charge filed in the District of New Jersey , it reads , “ Each stair in Apple ’s course of conduct build and reenforce the moat around its smartphone monopoly . The cumulative effect of this course of doings has been to maintain and entrench Apple ’s smartphone monopoly at the disbursal of the user , developer , and other third parties who helped make the iPhone what it is today . ”
How , specifically , is the DOJ accuse Apple of start the iPhone as a monopoly ? It focuses on a few points . The DOJ points out Apple ’s chokehold on iMessage and the disparity in content timbre when an iPhone drug user texts someone with an Android phone .
iMessage has long been a sticking tip for Apple , and the society has n’t really helped itself here . During a 2022 consultation , someone narrate Apple CEO Tim Cook , “ Not to make it personal , but I ca n’t send my mom certain video . ” Cook ’s response ? “ Buy your mom an iPhone . ” The DOJ is now using that quote as one of its pieces of evidence for the lawsuit .
It also calls out how Apple has block up cloud - streaming apps ( specifically those for video recording game , like Xbox Game Pass and GeForce Now ) , set how smartwatches other than the Apple Watch piece of work with the iPhone , obstruct alternatives to Apple Wallet , etc . They ’re all things we ’ve arise used to over the years as part of the “ Apple ecosystem , ” but they ’re practices the U.S. government clearly is n’t fond of .
How Apple has responded
As you might mistrust , Apple is n’t thrilled with this news show . The company released a statement in response to the causa , order , “ This lawsuit menace who we are and the principles that set Apple production asunder in fiercely competitive markets . ”
Apple ’s statement continues , “ If successful , it would hamper our power to create the kind of technology hoi polloi wait from Apple — where hardware , software , and service intersect . It would also set a unsafe precedent , empower government to take a arduous helping hand in designing people ’s applied science . ”
What this lawsuit means for you
In short , this is what we ’re dealing with : The DOJ is accusing Apple of being too restrictive with the iPhone , running it as a monopoly , and wound consumer and challenger in the process . Apple , unsurprisingly , want to agitate those claim .
What does all of this mean for you ? decent now , likely not much . We do n’t have a fit date for any auditory modality between the DOJ and Apple , though that should add up in due metre .
Where thing will get interesting is what finally come of this lawsuit . It ’s possible Apple will just be slapped with fines , get a stern talking - to , and go about business as usual . On the flip side , this could in the end result in Apple needing to make significant change to how it operates the iPhone and its surround ecosystem . We ’ve already seenApple allow third - party app stores and software sideloading due to regularization in the EU .
If the DOJ pressures Apple enough , that could translate to even heavy changes to the iPhone in the U.S. — and potentially worldwide . We ’re talking about an iMessage app on Android , Apple Watches working with Android phones , third - party app stores for iPhones worldwide , etc . These are all just hypotheticals mighty now , but count on how the lawsuit progresses , those could be the types of natural action the DOJ requires Apple to make .
Again , that ’s all stuff to conceive about in the future . Nothing is change for you in good order now , and it ’ll in all likelihood be a while before any of this happens — if it ever does . But the first steps have been made toward a potentially seismic work shift for the iPhone .
