CNN — When Apple launched its first Mac computer in 1984, with its iconic “hello” smiley Mac greeting, it wanted to stand out in the nascent PC market. The Mac was affordable with its friendly, innovative design—Apple’s way of setting the Mac apart in the confusing PC landscape.
That consumer-friendly mantra persists today, with Apple carefully cultivating a lightweight yet controlled user experience across all of its products, including the billions of iPhones in use around the world.
But the Biden administration believes Apple took it too far. On Thursday, the Justice Department sued Apple for illegally monopolizing the smartphone market. At the press conference, the government provided a long list of ways Apple allegedly destroyed competition with restrictive app store terms, high fees and its “walled garden” approach, limiting how third-party companies interact with its brands and services.
The company has denied the lawsuit’s allegations and said it plans to fight them. Apple added that the lawsuit could empower the government to “take a heavy hand in designing human technology.”
But if successful, the lawsuit could affect Apple’s products and services. While the suit could last for years, here’s a closer look at what it could mean for iPhone users:
Changes in the App Store
If found liable, the company could be forced to change a number of things.
One such change is how iPhone users can gain greater access to “super apps” that were previously largely restricted. The term refers to one-stop-shop applications that enable messaging, food ordering, payment processing and other capabilities within a single platform.
According to Dipanjan Chatterjee, principal analyst at market research firm Forrester, super apps are the biggest threat to Apple’s supremacy in the lives of its users.
“An offering like WeChat, dubbed China’s app for everything, can provide an alternative to Apple’s ecosystem for people to communicate, bank, share memories, chat with businesses and more,” he said. “What Apple fears most is becoming irrelevant to its customers.”
At the same time, super apps like WeChat are being created by larger companies and could therefore put some smaller companies at a disadvantage. And the concept is not very welcome in the US anyway.
The US government, however, may argue that the lack of interest could be due to Apple’s large share of the smartphone market and its reluctance to offer cool apps in its store, Chatterjee said.
Better interoperability
Apple may also be required to offer more support for cross-platform messaging, an issue the company has previously said it is already working on.
The company lets iPhone users send high-quality photos and videos to each other, but similar texts for Android phones are slower and grainier. It also perpetuates these messages in green bubbles, creating a kind of class divide, critics argue.
In November, the company said it would add new features, such as read receipts, typing indicators, better support for group chats and better media sharing of images and videos, across all platforms to close the gap. Apple’s move to add support for a standard called RCS (Rich Communications Services) is set to roll out later this year. RCS is considered a replacement for alternatives such as SMS or text messaging, and can work over Wi-Fi and mobile data.
The change follows pressure from both regulators and competitors to keep more operating systems running smoothly. The European Union’s Digital Markets Act, for example, requires companies to make their core services interoperable between platforms. The US government could demand the same.
More open services
Another likely change is how third-party hardware, such as smartwatches, will communicate with a range of Apple devices and software, including the iPhone and Apple services such as Fitness+. The company also required Apple Watch users to own iOS devices to keep them locked into its existing ecosystem.
Chatterjee said this change would have both positive and negative sides.
“The end result would be somewhere along the spectrum of access to more and cheaper options, but also devaluing the user experience that Apple’s customers value so highly,” he said.
The Biden administration also railed against Apple’s lack of support for mobile cloud services. Loosening this could allow users to access games and other cloud-based applications without paying for expensive hardware.
Within the discussion
The DOJ’s complaint alleges that Apple’s conduct unlawfully impeded competition, kept its customers locked into its products and prevented other companies from innovating. While the Biden administration will have to prove those damages, some critics say any potential changes Apple could make will negatively impact the user experience.
David McQueen, director of research at ABI Research, said he understands the market for content and apps needs to be open, and Apple needs to avoid monopolistic advantages that could limit competition, raise prices or block innovation. But Apple’s success stems in part from its tight control over its products and services, keeping things intuitive and seamless.
“If Apple is forced to comply, it could potentially mean the end of providing this consistent and unified user experience, although by the same token, consumers will be open to a greater variety of apps and services, helping more developers and service providers,” McQueen said. .
Chatterjee noted that some people are drawn to Apple’s family of products precisely because of the ease of use of the carefully managed ecosystem. Apple may have to do a lot more to preserve the integrity of its experience, but any changes likely won’t be enough to make customers leave and go elsewhere.
“The vast majority of Apple customers would probably be happier with more choices and lower prices as long as it doesn’t interfere with their level of user experience, which is compromised by less control Apple has over the experience,” Chatterjee said.
But he added that those currently outside Apple’s ecosystem are likely to benefit from “opportunistic inclusion without having to go all-in with Apple.”
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