Tim Cook is visiting Germany this month, where he attended Munich’s Oktoberfest. In an interview with weekly news magazine Stern, Cook talked local developers, iPhone pricing, and Apple TV+.
So far, so familiar, right? The difference is that Cook’s comments reflect newfound worries about a possible antitrust investigation into Apple.
Apple has been one of the tech giants talked about in recent antitrust discussions. Recently, senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren tweeted that Apple has, “too much power.” House Judiciary Committee leaders have asked Tim Cook to turn over his emails and other information as part of a possible investigation.
Cook doesn’t discuss antitrust at length in his Stern interview. But it’s the shadow which looms over everything he says. “No reasonable person would ever call Apple a monopolist,” he tells the newspaper. (Based on a Google translation.) He also notes that there is strong competition in every market Apple is active in. Nor does it have a dominant market share in these areas.
Defending Apple against antitrust complaints
Much of the criticism of Apple revolves around the App Store. Specifically, Apple has been accused of introducing its own apps, offering rival services to existing apps. “We have 30 to 40 apps – versus more than two million others,” Cook says. He compares the App Store to a supermarket. “The likelihood that it owns a private label is very high, and who benefits from having another product on the shelf? The customer — and that’s a good thing.”
Antitrust discussion even comes up in the discussion of Apple’s new Apple TV+ service. Despite not launching just yet, Cook makes sure to not reference it as a competition between Apple, Netflix, or rivals. That’s despite undercutting rivals with its $4.99 monthly price tag.
“I do not think the competition is afraid of us, the video section works differently,” Cook says. “It’s not about whether Netflix wins and we lose, or if we win and they win. Many people use multiple services and we are now trying to become one of them.” (It’s a long way from that time Jony Ive reportedly said that Swiss watchmakers were “f*cked” in an age of Apple Watch.)
Cook welcomes antitrust investigation
Finally, Cook showed support for investigations of tech companies. “I’m the first to say that big companies should be investigated in detail, so I have no problems with that,” he says. “I just hope that people are not all lumping together big technology companies. … If people just look a little under the surface, they’ll come to the conclusion that we’re in a very different position in all of these things.”
Source: Stern
