[ad_1]
Source: Piñata farms
Despite his mild manners, Apple CEO Tim Cook has been known to cast a shadow … and has been throwing it in the Facebook trail for years.
The problem is the opposing business models.
- Apple sells high-priced hardware and controls the entire experience (with an emphasis on privacy).
- Facebook offers free (ad-supported) communication and social tools to billions of users.
Over the years, Cook has criticized Facebook for “collecting tons of data” and “monetizing its customers” according to New York Times.
Reply Mark Zuckerberg: Apple products are expensive …
… And not accessible to everyone, whereas Facebook products are.
Last week, Facebook stepped up things by running ads in full-page newspapers criticizing Apple’s new privacy policy that requires iPhone users to give their consent to allow companies to track them in apps.
Facebook says it is “taking on Apple” and protecting the interests of small businesses that need follow-up to better target ads (conveniently leaving out the benefits of Facebook).
Apple has a ‘strategic credit’ when it comes to privacy
Technology analyst Ben Thompson describes this as “a simple decision that makes a company look good relative to other companies facing much more significant trade-offs.”
However, it seems like a winning hand … one that Mark Zuckerberg himself has recognized.
In spring 2019, he announced that FB was increasing “privacy-centric communication” in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Apple is far from out of the woods
His iron fist on the App Store, which is a guardian of iPhone 1B + devices, is a clear source of monopoly concern. In fact, Facebook is offering “information” to Epic Games in its antitrust suit against Apple.
The truth is, Facebook and Apple have a very symbiotic relationship right now: Facebook needs Apple’s iPhone owners, while Apple needs Facebook’s mobile products (WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, FB).
For him NOW, things could get interesting in the future because both tech giants have ambitions in augmented reality.
For now, Apple seems to have the upper hand on privacy policy, and Tim just Cooked Zucky McHarvard with this tweet:
