Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has criticized Apple for what he described as arbitrary rules and a lack of groundbreaking innovation.
The Facebook founder disclosed this on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast expressing his frustration with Apple’s practices, particularly its approach to device compatibility and its developer ecosystem.
Zuckerberg acknowledged Apple’s initial impact on the tech industry, particularly with the invention of the iPhone.
However, he argued that the company has since failed to deliver significant innovations.
“On the one hand, [the iPhone has] been great, because now pretty much everyone in the world has a phone, and that’s kind of what enables pretty amazing things.
But on the other hand, like you’re saying, they have used that platform to put in place a lot of rules that I think feel arbitrary and feel like they haven’t really invented anything great in a while.
It’s like Steve Jobs invented the iPhone and now they’re just kind of sitting on it 20 years later,” Zuckerberg said.
He also noted that iPhone sales are struggling due to slower consumer upgrades, as newer models offer minimal improvements over their predecessors.
“I think year over year, I’m not even sure they’re selling more iPhones at this point. I think the sales might actually be declining. Part of it is that each generation doesn’t actually get that much better,” he stated.
Criticism of Apple’s business practices
Zuckerberg accused Apple of profiting by imposing a “30% tax on developers” and restricting third-party device compatibility.
“So how are they making more money as a company? Well, they do it by basically, like, squeezing people, and, like you’re saying, having this 30% tax on developers by getting you to buy more peripherals and things that plug into it,” he said.
- He specifically criticized Apple for limiting connectivity with third-party products.
“You know, they build stuff like Air Pods, which are cool, but they’ve just thoroughly hamstrung the ability for anyone else to build something that can connect to the iPhone in the same way,” Zuckerberg added.
Privacy and security debate
He disclosed that Apple always defended its restrictive policies by citing consumer privacy and security concerns.
“There are a lot of other companies in the world that would be able to build a very good earbud. But Apple has a specific protocol that they’ve built into the iPhone that allows AirPods to basically connect to it. And it’s just much more seamless because they’ve enabled that, but they don’t let anyone else use the protocol.
If they did, there would probably be much better competitors to AirPods out there. And whenever you push on this, they get super touchy. And they basically wrap their defense of it in, well, if we let other companies plug into our thing, then that would violate people’s privacy and security,” he said
Zuckerberg, however, dismissed this justification, arguing that Apple could address these issues through better protocols.
“It’s insecure because you didn’t build any security into it. And then now you’re using that as a justification for why only your product can connect easily,” he said.
Ray-Ban glasses integration hurdles
Mark highlighted the challenges Meta faced in integrating its Ray-Ban Metaglasses with Apple devices.
“We basically asked them for the Ray-Ban Metaglasses that we built. Can we basically use the protocol that you use for AirPod and some of these other things to just make it so we can as easily connect? So it’s not like a pain in the ass for people who want to use this.
I think one of the protocols that they’ve used, that they built, they basically didn’t encrypt it, so it’s like plain text. And they’re like, well, we can’t have you plug into it because it would be insecure. It’s like it’s insecure because you didn’t build any security into it.
And then now you’re using that as a justification for why only your product can connect in an easy way. It’s like the whole thing is kind of wild,” Zuckerberg said.
He further claimed that removing Apple’s “random rules” would significantly benefit Meta’s business.
“If Apple stopped applying its ‘random rules,’ Meta’s profit would double,” Zuckerberg asserted.
