Is the iPhone “Illegal?”

Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Is the iPhone “Illegal?””.
So if I build a new lens and my lens only works with my camera, then that’s vertical integration. Or if I build new headphones and my headphones, only work with my cable, that’s vertical integration.. Now, if I build a new smartwatch and my smartwatch only works with my smartphone – be careful that might be illegal., That’s a bit of an oversimplification. But let’s talk about it. ( upbeat music ). So this is a developing story and will continue to develop for years.

But I feel like it all comes down to something that I’ve at least noticed in talking to all these big companies, all these very public, multi-billion dollar companies. They always have two reasons for any public-facing statement that they make. There’s the reason for the public and then there’s the real reason..

So there’s just some news. This past week of the US Department of Justice suing Apple, saying that they are an illegal monopoly in the United States, the iPhone specifically.. Now, whenever there’s legal proceedings, obviously things get very complicated and I won’t even pretend to be diving into this at a super deep level.. But this is also interesting to me because of all the stuff, with the things that we talk about every day, which is just smartphones and gadgets..

And of course this is a pretty US specific thing, like obviously they’re being sued by the US, but also their dominance. Apple, the iPhone is the most popular in the US., So I think these are some numbers we should keep in mind. In the US.

The iPhone is at like 60 % market share and it’s even way higher up near 90 % with young people like it is ridiculously dominant., But worldwide. The iPhone is at about a 25 % market share., So the iPhone is specifically trending towards a monopoly. In the United States. ( upbeat music ), So here’s where it gets really interesting.. I would like to live in this analogy for this video, which is you’ve heard about people describing Apple’s ecosystem as a walled garden before this could not be more true right.

There’S this really really nice, beautiful, luscious garden and in the middle of that garden is the iPhone, and it has these really tall thick walls all the way around it.. So, in an ideal world right, you are just picking between different options for a product based on its merits based on its features.. So you just look at the whole lineup and you go yeah. I like this one, the best.

And that’s, how you make your choice right, Sick., But with this one the claim is Apple, is making it really really difficult, once you’ve chosen theirs to ever switch to anything else.. So with this analogy again, it’s really the walls of the garden that we have the issue with., So I’ll give you I’ll do two examples., So take the Apple Watch right. This is one of the examples in the Department of Justice’s 88 page PDF, that they’ve submitted. The iPhone and the Apple Watch work perfectly well together and only together..

It’S a feature it’s by design., That’s how they are.. So two parts of that are sketchy.. One is the Apple Watch works really well with the iPhone in a way that no other smartwatch can. And two the Apple Watch does not work with any other smartphone.. So look. I don’t think it’s a surprise that when Apple built a watch they gave it all kinds of integrations with the iPhone., So you can see them working perfectly together.. You can see and dismiss your notifications. You can reply to messages track. Your fitness., You can even use it as a shutter for your iPhone’s camera.. All these features that they just plug right into the iPhone they work great. And I think that’s even what Apple would tell people. They would agree like this is how we made it so that they work amazingly well together.. This is vertical integration., It’s awesome., But there’s also the real reason., Because the truth is now. If you try to use any other smartwatch with the iPhone you just don’t get nearly as many of those useful features from being super. Well, integrated., If you try to use like a Garmin smartwatch, for example, you don’t get the viewfinder for the camera, you don’t get the fitness tracking through Apple Fitness. You don’t get quick replies, you don’t get even image previews for your text. Messages.! You don’t even get to choose which apps show you notifications., It’s just all or nothing..

So if you choose an iPhone, then next, when you’re looking for a smartwatch to buy, there’s kind of only really one good full fledged option, which is the Apple Watch.. This is also true by the way to various degrees, with AirPods and AirTags and various other things in Apple’s ecosystem, because they all are great when you have an iPhone and work super well with it, but work horribly or not at all when you don’t.. So that is part of the that’s the walls around the ecosystem that make it really hard to leave., Because if you now wan na switch from the iPhone to the Android phone you’re, not just switching phones, You have to now get a new phone and a new Watch and new headphones and a new tracker and all this stuff, because they all worked so well with the iPhone and so horribly with anything else.. So that is a real barrier to people leaving this ecosystem once they get into it.. So another example is the whole blue bubbles and green bubbles thing that they do. I’ve already made an entire video about this dynamic..

If you haven’t already seen it I’ll leave a link with a like button below, if you wan na watch it., But basically today when iPhones message other iPhones. They have tons of features and typing indicators and high res media and those are blue bubbles.. And when they message Android phones, it falls back to SMS, which is slow, low res unencrypted trash that is green, bubbles. And Apple. Just refuses to make iMessage work on Android.. The Department of Justice actually literally references a video of Tim Cook on stage at a conference where he says this.. It’S tough not to make it personal, but I can’t send my mom certain videos or she can’t send me certain videos., And so we leave- Buy your mom, an iPhone. (, everyone laughing ), All right., And this is so poetic just because you know obviously he’s got This smile of, like you guys all know it’s true, but also it goes back to what I said at the beginning, which is with any of these public-facing decisions, there’s the answer that they give the public. And then there’s the real reason.

You know originally iMessage was Built back in the days where text messages were basically paid per text. Like every SMS cost money, hence the green., So iMessage would work over the internet and be unlimited and it would offer way more features and they’d build onto it over time., Adding encryption and reactions And typing indicators, all this stuff. And Apple people and Apple themselves would probably all agree like this. Is it’s just a thing that Apple built that’s way better than SMS.

Like it’s, not their fault, SMS sucks. They just made a better thing., So yeah, of course, yeah they’re gon na build their own version of a thing and it’s not illegal to not also develop it for Android.. They just made their own thing for the iPhone., But also Tim Cook’s quote: “ just buy your mom. An iPhone” is the other, equally valid point.. It’S the real reason.. There are plenty of internal emails that have surfaced over time with Apple executives openly talking about how giving iMessage to Android would make it easier for people to switch to Android from the iPhone..

Imessage is clearly one of the walls of the ecosystem and it’s probably one of the biggest thickest walls. Like ask any young person in the US today why they use an iPhone., And I think a lot of them would probably tell you something to do with iMessage.. So is this stuff that they’re doing illegal – I guess is the question or maybe even another way to phrase it is: is Apple making other products worse or are they making their own products really good and then not letting other things outside the ecosystem have access to Those things It’s kind of both honestly., But the thing is they’re, not the only ones doing a lot of this stuff.. They are just the ones that happen to be in this pseudo-monopoly position. Right now., Like the Pixel Watch, for example, does not work at all with the iPhone.. It just works perfectly with Android phones., But is anybody that mad about that? You know? Rcs is announced to be coming to the iPhone at some point in 2024, but I can almost guarantee it’ll, probably still be green bubbles.. It will probably be the absolute bare minimum of supporting RCS and they will probably still be delineating very clearly between iPhone to iPhone iMessage and iPhone to Android something else. And there’s even more to this lawsuit like Apple Pay is another one.. How no other services can use the NFC chip on the iPhone. Super apps? Is another one.

Like if you wan na look at all this stuff, I will link the best stuff I can find down below., So my take is Apple is technically yet guilty of all these things. They’re doing all stuff, but in the walled garden analogy it’s like They have built up a really really nice, garden. And Apple would say like look our garden, it’s so green and luscious and beautiful. They’ve built the most beautiful garden with the most people in it, but they’ve also built up the biggest walls around that garden. And so Apple would love to say, look everyone’s chosen, our garden and they’re all staying in our garden..

That’S how great it is., But even if you saw another greener, softer, better garden somewhere else, the walls to escaping to getting to that are just way too high.. So it’s less that each individual thing that they’re doing with the products working well together is illegal. And it’s more that they feel like they have to do something about this one company having so much power and control in smartphones, which is here, it’s essentially a commodity.. It’S just like a thing that everybody has., So I wan na leave you with this., You remember at the beginning, when I talked about how Apple’s ridiculously dominant in the US and these crazy numbers, like 90 % of young people., The crazy thing is they’re. Super super popular here but, as I mentioned, they are not a monopoly anywhere else.

And why? Why is that true? How are they so popular here and they’re doing all the same stuff in other places, but they’re not a monopoly in other places, And so I think of China for example.. China is another huge smartphone market where WeChat is kind of like this super app.. It’S a huge thing. Like it’s messaging, it’s payments, it’s also calling a taxi and also paying your bills and ordering food groceries like WeChat is everything.. So just as long as your phone has WeChat, then the rest is kind of doesn’t really matter. It’S up to you.

And so in China. There’S this incredibly vibrant, innovative landscape of all these smartphone manufacturers, competing like crazy, like Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo and iPhone, is in there too., But they’re all just competing ruthlessly with hardware features and with other stuff to try to get your attention to maybe pick their phone’cause. It’S just what you’re into. They all have WeChat..

So in a market like that, people will buy your phone based on if it’s actually better or not., Meaning there’s lots of gardens and very few walls around those gardens.. That’S what a good competitive landscape looks like.. Now, what would be maybe illegal or a wrong thing to do, is if WeChat or the makers of WeChat, if Tencent made a phone and then they gave their phone special access to certain parts of WeChat that suddenly no other phone could get then monopoly.. So this lawsuit and all this legal versus illegal stuff, it’s mainly just a way to try to poke some holes and get closer to that level of lower walls and more competition.

That makes everybody better. Then we’re actually competing on innovation again., But it’s something that will be evolving for a long time over time., So it’ll be interesting to keep an eye on. And speaking of things that might be illegal, shout out to Dbrand for sponsoring this video.. So you might have heard about unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ve heard about their grip case by now., So I’ve got their latest Hydrodip cases here and I got ta say the name matches it perfectly..

You know these days. A lot of phone cases are just kind of boring plastic shells, but with Dbrand they’re kind of playing with some stuff, and these are some crazy colorways and these trippy hydrodipped patterns., Plus with the Gold Rush one if you catch it under the right light. You’Ll notice a little low key metallic effect under this matte finish, which is sick. Now, in addition to the impact protection that you expect from premium case, perfect.

Grip cases also have what I would consider attention to detail.. So that’s two things.. First of all, these buttons they’re just really cliquey they’re, nice, they’re, probably better than the actual phones buttons., But also in general, like we’ve, all eventually dropped a phone, whether it’s like out of a car or on your face, while watching a YouTube video. It happens..

Ideally, this case prevents it’cause. It’S in the name. It’S the Grip Case.. This texture is pretty nice at that., So it’s hopefully gon na prevent that sort of drop stuff..

But in the case you do drop it. Then yeah should be fine., It’s good., So yeah. If you wan na, if you’re a case person, I would say at least get yourself a nice Grip, Case.

I’ll leave a link below., But that’s it.. Thanks for watching this, video and lem me know what you think about these features and the iPhone and everything going on with it. And I’ll catch. You guys in the next article. Peace. ( upbeat music, ) .