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Apple forced to talk about other antitrust fouls

by on20 May 2021


This case keeps getting messier

A top Apple executive tasked with defending the App Store in a monopoly lawsuit by Epic Games found himself having to answer Tuesday for a spate of other alleged antitrust fouls by the world's most valuable company.

Marketing chief Phil Schiller was confronted about several instances in which the company has locked in users and made it difficult for them to switch away from its devices.

Katherine Forrest, a lawyer for Epic, pointed out that Schiller emailed his colleagues a 2016 news article titled "iMessage is the glue that keeps me stuck to the iPhone", which explained that Apple's messaging platform is a reason people do not switch to Android devices.

She quizzed Schiller on the idea that users can't easily move music and video purchased on Apple services to Google's Android.

She went further, indicating that Apple's iCloud Keychain service for storing passwords on Apple devices can't synchronise with Android devices.

All this, besides looking generally bad, proves that Jobs’ Mob has form locking in developers with its App Store rules, it also locks in consumers, limiting their ability to switch to competitors.

Schiller said many users subscribe to video and music streaming services and can input their passwords into a new device manually. He also suggested that users could use third-party password managers.
Still, this trial is proving really amusing.

 

Last modified on 20 May 2021
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