The US Department of Justice notched an initial win in its antitrust case against Apple today, with a federal judge rejecting Apple’s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit outright. The government’s allegations are “sufficient to demonstrate Apple’s specific intent to monopolize the smartphone and performance smartphone market,“ Judge Julien Neals wrote in an opinion on Monday. Apple filed to dismiss the government’s lawsuit in August 2024, arguing that the Justice Department failed to show that Apple monopolized the smartphone market or acted in an anticompetitive manner. The lawsuit was based on the “outlandish” premise that Apple’s success comes from “intentional degradation of iPhone to block purported competitive threats,” the company wrote. The case’s progress is still early, and the judge isn’t…

Apple is in urgent talks with EU regulators to modify its App Store and dodge escalating fines set to begin this week. The $3 trillion company, previously fined €500 million for violating the EU’s Digital Markets Act, is negotiating with the European Commission to comply with the law. Barbara Moens for Financial Times: ‎ People involved in the negotiations said Apple was expected to offer concessions on its “steering” provisions that stop users accessing offers outside the App Store. Regulators ordered the Silicon Valley company to revise its rules within two months of its initial €500mn fine, with the deadline for the company to comply with the bloc’s rules in order to avoid new levies expiring on Thursday. Those financial…

We’re doing something a little different on today’s episode of Decoder. I asked my friend John Gruber, of the website Daring Fireball, to come on the show and talk about the future of Apple — and, importantly, the App Store. Gruber and I have been friends for over a decade now. Daring Fireball was one of the first and most influential Apple blogs around, and he has more insight into Apple, its culture, and how it does things than anyone else. Everyone at Apple and in the Apple developer community reads Daring Fireball religiously. In 2010, Steve Jobs himself emailed Gruber’s analysis of an early App Store rule change to an unhappy developer and called it “very insightful.” Personally, I…

Microsoft's Bing or DuckDuckGo probably won't disrupt Google's dominance in search, said Apple senior vice president of services Eddy Cue - but AI services easily could. Cue was returning to a courtroom in Washington, DC where he last testified in the Justice Department's trial against Google's search monopoly in September 2023. During the current remedies trial on Wednesday, Cue said that in the time since, well-funded generative AI upstarts have made such significant advancements that they could ultimately disrupt that monopoly - perhaps more effectively than the court could. Cue was also, however, there to defend a significant source of Apple's revenue: the payments Google offers for default search engine placement on Apple's Safari browser. After the 2023 trial, Judge…

Apple is “actively looking at” bringing AI search options to Safari. Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, made the statement during Google’s antitrust trial on Wednesday, saying the company will likely add AI search features to Safari in the coming year as they continue to improve. “To date, they’re just not good enough,” Cue said, adding that Apple has already had discussions with Perplexity, OpenAI, and Anthropic. Cue is mindful that it’s still early days for generative AI, and says that with Apple’s existing agreement with OpenAI for other AI services, it was important to “make sure we have the capability to switch if we have to,” in case a different provider leaps ahead.  The statements came as…

After a stinging rebuke in the lower courts over its legal battle with Epic, Apple filed a notice of appeal to the Ninth Circuit on Monday. The appeal will challenge last week’s ruling that prevents the company from charging developers fees on purchases made outside the App Store. In 2021, the Epic v. Apple lawsuit resulted in a court order enjoining Apple from anti-steering activities — that is, hindering developers from telling users to make purchases outside of the app. The case was revived last year when Epic Games alleged that Apple had violated that court order.  Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers not only agreed with Epic Games but also found that Apple’s Vice President of Finance, Alex Roman, had lied…