The Competitive Landscape Favors the iPhone, More on Elon Musk Suing Apple
Hello everyone. The highly anticipated remedies verdict in U.S. v. Google (available here) was released a few hours ago. Based on a quick look over the ruling, things look pretty good for Apple (and Google for that matter). We will dedicate tomorrow’s update to the topic.
For today’s and Thursday’s updates we will focus on a few topics that are on my mind ahead of Apple’s big event next week.
Let’s jump right in.
The Competitive Landscape Favors the iPhone
A week from today, Apple will host its largest event of the year when it comes to generating buzz and attention. WWDC is the largest event when thinking of number of Apple Park guests and overall operation (there’s many moving parts). And one can certainly argue new software is vitally important for the Apple ecosystem. However, the flagship iPhone event in September is able generate more press than any other Apple event. It’s a truly global affair as well. The iPhone is Apple’s best tool for grabbing new users around the world.
From a hardware perspective, attempts to somehow displace iPhone from its perch have not been successful. We can point to AI hardware startups underestimating consumers’ love for iPhone. Meanwhile, Apple peers are struggling to recreate the Apple playbook of vertical integration and ecosystem cohesion.
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Elon Musk Sues Apple, Apple Eyeing JPMorgan Chase for Apple Card, Keep an Eye on JPMorgan Chase
Happy Wednesday. Let’s keep things going with three more stories that jumped out at me.
Elon Musk Sues Apple
Here's Ars Technica:
“After a public outburst over Grok’s App Store rankings, on Monday, Elon Musk followed through on his threat to sue Apple and OpenAI.
At first, Musk appeared fixated on ChatGPT consistently topping Apple's ‘Must Have’ app list—which Grok has never made—claiming Apple seemed to preference OpenAI, an Apple partner, over all chatbot rivals. But Musk's filing shows that the X and xAI owner isn't just trying to push for more Grok downloads on iPhones—he's concerned that Apple and OpenAI have teamed up to completely dash his ‘everything app’ dreams, which was the reason he bought Twitter.
At this point appearing to be genuinely panicked about OpenAI's insurmountable lead in the chatbot market, Musk has specifically alleged that an agreement integrating ChatGPT into the iOS violated antitrust and unfair competition laws. Allegedly, the conspiracy is designed to protect Apple's smartphone monopoly and block out AI rivals to lock in OpenAI's dominance in the chatbot market.
As Musk sees it, Apple is supposedly so worried that X will use Grok to create a ‘super app’ that replaces the need for a sophisticated smartphone that the iPhone maker decided to partner with OpenAI to limit X and xAI innovation.”
This lawsuit (available here) is nonsensical and says more about Elon Musk and his frustrations with OpenAI and ChatGPT adoption exceeding that of xAI and Grok than Apple’s handling of the App Store.
The opening paragraph to Musk’s filing comes across as a joke.
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