Looking through the DOJ's filing of its civil lawsuit against Apple, it appears that the government is really trying hard to make some of its accusations relevant. The Justice Department, along with 16 state and district attorneys general, say Apple has monopolized the smartphone industry. To prove this point, the suit accuses Apple of placing barriers to prevent certain companies from entering the smartphone business.
Thanks to
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman for pointing this out in a tweet how ridiculous some of the government's claims are. For example, the suit claims that Apple's monopolistic methods are to blame for the failure of the Amazon Fire Phone. The suit says Amazon launched the Fire Phone in 2014 but was unable to “sustain its business profitably and withdrew the following year.” Eh? The Fire Phone died of its own accord.
First, the Fire Phone used a forked version of Android and didn't feature the
Google Play Store. This alone likely prevented a large number of consumers from purchasing the device. Amazon only sold 26,000 units in total and wrote off $170 million in unsold inventory. The phone was initially priced at $200 on contract and AT&T reduced the price to 99 cents with a signed two-year pact. The Fire Phone was an AT&T exclusive, which also limited sales of the device.
DOJ makes wild claims against Apple
The truth is that Apple and the iPhone have absolutely nothing to do with the poor performance of the Fire Phone, probably the second worst smartphone released after the BlackBerry Storm. Certainly, the iPhone had nothing to do with Amazon's decision to get out of business the following year.
The Amazon Fire Phone was a failure, but not because of Apple or the iPhone
The DOJ also blamed Apple for Microsoft's failure with Windows Phone (which was entirely due to Microsoft's inability to convince app developers to write for the platform) and the inability of HTC and LG to remain viable smartphone manufacturers. HTC and LG's problems had nothing to do with the iPhone but rather with Samsung's dominance in the high-end Android market.
The DOJ suit goes on to say that “Today, only
Samsung and Google remain significant competitors in the U.S. performance smartphone market. The barriers are so high that Google is far behind Apple and Samsung, despite the fact that Google controls Android development. operating system.”
Perhaps the DOJ and the 16 state and district attorneys general who filed the complaint need to understand that Amazon was to blame for the failure of the Fire Phone, Microsoft's inability to convince developers to The need to create a well-stocked app storefront led to the demise of Windows Phone. , and Samsung's top Galaxy S line doomed HTC and LG. HTC also failed to equip its phones with decent cameras and used smaller capacity batteries on its high-end handsets.
You can find the trial
here. Go to paragraph 186 to see the DOJ's incredibly ridiculous claims.
