Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg criticized the rival technology giant Apple for lackluster innovation efforts and “random rules” in a lengthy podcast interview on Friday.
“On the one hand, [the iPhone has] “It was great because pretty much everyone in the world has a phone now, and that allows for some pretty amazing things,” Zuckerberg said on an episode of “Joe Rogan experience.” “But on the other hand… they have used this platform to introduce a lot of rules that, in my opinion, are arbitrary and… [I] I feel like they haven't invented anything great in a long time. It’s like Steve Jobs invented the iPhone and now they’re just sitting on it 20 years later.”
Zuckerberg added that he believed iPhone sales were weakening because consumers were taking longer to upgrade their phones because recent models weren't big improvements over previous models.
“So how do they make more money as a company? Well, they basically do it by pressuring people and, as you say, putting this 30% tax on developers, making you buy more peripherals and other things.” “Plug in,” said Pile of sugar. “You know, they build things like Air Pods, which are cool, but they've just completely limited the ability for everyone else to build something that connects to the iPhone in the same way.”
According to Zuckerberg, Apple is fending off opposition from other companies by saying it doesn't want to violate consumer privacy and security. But he said the problem would be solved if Apple improved its protocol, for example by building better security and using encryption.
“It’s unsafe because you don’t have any security built in. And then now you use that as justification for why only your product can make a simple connection,” Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg said that if Apple stopped using its “random rules,” Meta’s profits would double.
He also photographed Apple's Vision Pro headset, which had disappointing sales within the US. Meta sells its own virtual headsets called Meta Quest.
“I think the Vision Pro is one of the bigger attempts at a new thing that they've tried in a while,” Zuckerberg said. “And I don't want to put too much pressure on them, because we do a lot of things where the first version isn't so good, and you kind of want to judge the third version of it. But I mean, the V1 definitely didn’t do it quite as well.”
“I heard it’s really good for watching movies,” he added.
Apple didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment from CNBC.
image credit : www.cnbc.com