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Apple files emergency motion asking court to halt Google search monopoly case

MacDailyNews

Jan 31

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Apple has filed an emergency motion to halt the upcoming remedies trial by the Justice Department against Google, seeking a more significant role in the antitrust lawsuit. The motion was submitted late Thursday, following Apple’s appeal of a district court’s decision that denied its request for greater involvement in the case.

Sean Burch for The Wrap:
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Apple, in its filing, said that it would be unfairly sidelined in the case if the remedies trial moves forward before its appeal is settled. This trial against Google is set for April, after a federal judge ruled last year it broke antitrust laws in order to uphold its dominance of online search.
If the stay is not granted, “Apple may well be forced to stand mute at trial, as a mere spectator, while the government pursues an extreme remedy that targets Apple by name and would prohibit any commercial arrangement between Apple and Google for a decade,” per Apple’s filing.
This would block Apple from having “the ability to defend its right to reach other arrangements with Google that could benefit millions of users,” the filing added, as well as negatively affect the company’s ability to be compensated for its search deal with Google. Apple, notably, gets paid $20 billion annually to make Google the default search engine on its devices, court documents revealed last year.
Apple would “suffer clear and substantial irreparable harm” if it cannot participate in the remedies trial, the filing suggested.

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MacDailyNews Take: Apple won’t let $20+ billion annually go without a fight, but without Apple users, Google would be in big trouble.

Google pays Apple tens of billions of dollars annually to be Safari’s default search engine because Mac, iPhone, and iPad users are extremely demographically desirable (to any company that like to make profits) versus those who settle for iPhone knockoffs.

In September 2023, Asymco‘s Horace Dediu did the math and arrived at the conclusion that Apple iPhone owners are 7.4 times more valuable than those who settle for Android phones. – MacDailyNews, July 5, 2024

Real iPhones vs. Poor Man’s iPhones. Same as it ever was. — MacDailyNews, April 22, 2022

The bottom line: Those who settle for Android devices are not equal to iOS users. The fact is that iOS users are worth significantly more than Android settlers to developers, advertisers, third-party accessory makers (speakers, cases, chargers, cables, etc.), vehicle makers, musicians, TV show producers, movie producers, book authors, carriers, retailers, podcasters… The list goes on and on.

The quality of the customer matters. A lot.

Facile “analyses” that look only at market (unit) share, equating one Android settler to one iOS user, make a fatal error by incorrectly equating users of each platform one-to-one.

When it comes to mobile operating systems, all users are simply not equal. – SteveJack, MacDailyNews, November 15, 2014

Android is pushed to users who are, in general:

a) confused about why they should be choosing an iPhone over an inferior knockoff and therefore might be less prone to understand/explore their devices’ capabilities or trust their devices with credit card info for shopping; and/or
b) enticed with “Buy One Get One Free,” “Buy One, Get Two or More Free,” or similar ($100 Gift Cards with Purchase) offers.

Neither type of customer is the cream of the crop when it comes to successful engagement or coveted demographics; closer to the bottom of the barrel than the top, in fact. Android can be widespread and still demographically inferior precisely because of the way in which and to whom Android devices are marketed. Unending BOGO promos attract a seemingly unending stream of cheapskate freetards just as inane, pointless TV commercials about robots or blasting holes in concrete walls attract meatheads and dullards, not exactly the best demographics unless you’re peddling muscle building powders or grease monkey overalls.

Google made a crucial mistake: They gave away Android to “partners” who pushed and continue to push the product into the hands of the exact opposite type of user that Google needs for Android to truly thrive. Hence, Android is a backwater of second-rate, or worse, app versions that are only downloaded when free or ad-supported – but the Android user is notoriously cheap, so the ads don’t sell for much because they don’t work very well. You’d have guessed that Google would have understood this, but you’d have guessed wrong.

Google built a platform that depends heavily on advertising support, but sold it to the very type of customer who’s the least likely to patronize ads.

iOS users are the ones who buy apps, so developers focus on iOS users. iOS users buy products, so accessory makers focus on iOS users. iOS users have money and the proven will to spend it, so vehicle makers focus on iOS users. Etcetera. Android can have the Hee Haw demographic. Apple doesn’t want it or need it; it’s far more trouble than it’s worth. – MacDailyNews, November 26, 2012

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