Since it was introduced on Dec. 5, Beeper Mini has quickly become a headache and potential antitrust problem for Apple. It has poked a hole in Apple’s messaging system, while critics say it has demonstrated how Apple bullies potential competitors.
Apple was caught by surprise when Beeper Mini gave Android devices access to its modern, iPhone-only service. Less than a week after Beeper Mini’s launch, Apple blocked the app by changing its iMessage system. It said the app created a security and privacy risk.
The Justice Department has taken interest in the case. Beeper Mini met with the department’s antitrust lawyers on Dec. 12, two people familiar with the meeting said. Eric Migicovsky, a co-founder of the app’s parent company, Beeper, declined to comment on the meeting, but the department is in the middle of a four-year-old investigation into Apple’s anticompetitive behavior.
The Federal Trade Commission said in a blog post on Thursday that it would scrutinize “dominant” players that
Tripp Mickle & Mike Isaacuse privacy and security as a justification to disallow interoperabilitybetween services. The post did not name any companies.
The ‘green bubble’ iMessage situation in the US is beyond absurd. I can’t quite decide which is worse: grown people caring so much about kindergarten-level status signaling, or Apple being eager to exploit this social dynamic to grow iPhone sales. Actually, I guess I can: when you have Tim ‘buy your mom an iPhone’ Cook openly deriding Android users on stage it’s abundantly clear that Apple’s entire strategy is to degrade the experience of anyone daring to venture outside their ecosystem.
As for Beeper Mini, I don’t see how they could expect Apple to let them get away with these workarounds. As much as I enjoy criticizing Apple, they clearly have the right to shut down unauthorized access to iMessage servers. Their issue though is one of perception: they appear as the big, bad bully cutting off small developers, the same developers they should be attracting and growing through the App Store. Had Apple not insisted on keeping iMessage exclusive, these situations could have been avoided – and the company could have developed ways to monetize a much larger user base over the years. Another self-inflicted wound because Apple cannot think beyond its tight ecosystem and the monopoly profits it collects.
While I don’t have much faith that US regulators would take meaningful action in this situation – especially in an election year – it’s possible that the prospect of litigation (which could potentially uncover all sorts of backroom deals) and regulation may move Apple to relax their rules and consider opening their ‘walled garden’ ever so slightly. Already we have seen them suddenly announcing RCS support, and Apple could soon ‘split’ its App Store to comply with EU regulations. It may also face an antitrust case from the US DOJ targeting the company’s strategies to protect the dominance of the iPhone (including: how Apple locks competitors out of its iMessage service).
All in all, the outlook for the revenues Apple is reporting under the ‘services’ umbrella is rather cloudy – and the hardware business isn’t doing much better either, as in 2023 Apple suffered its longest revenue slide in 22 years, with four straight quarters of declining sales.
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