In a stunning revelation on March 21st, the Justice Department (DOJ) announced a lawsuit against Apple for allegedly creating a monopoly on the smartphone market. Joined by 16 bipartisan state attorneys general, they filed suit in New Jersey and claimed Apple is acting criminally at every turn. They allege the company limits competition and hurts consumers, developers, and small businesses by way of their App Store, the limiting functionality of third-party watches, as well as diminishing cross-platform messaging.
Jonathan Kanter, DOJ assistant attorney general of the antitrust division, said in a statement that the company played hide-and-seek with investigators. Through this, they ultimately were able to price gouge customers for their goods and services and avoid charges by changing small things each time charges were close to being filed. He claims they prevented any other competition from keeping up with them.
Through a statement of their own, Apple fired back on the allegations. “If successful, [this lawsuit] would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from Apple—where hardware, software, and services intersect. It would also set a dangerous precedent, empowering the government to take a heavy hand in designing people’s technology. We believe this lawsuit is wrong on the facts and the law, and we will vigorously defend against it.”
It’s funny. Apple has created some of the most sophisticated and elaborate programming on the planet and made it exceptionally user-friendly. Using a code that makes it not worth the time for hackers and spammers to write viruses for, they have been one of the safest companies to do business with. Security is the cornerstone of their existence, and it’s why most commanders in the military and other government officials around the globe have the iPhone as their government mobile.
After Blackberry essentially became a punchline, Apple became the only mobile company to do it right. They aren’t the enemy here in America; if anything, they are the hero we need to convince to bring manufacturing jobs back to our shores.
