Zuckerberg: Apple’s ‘Random Rules’ Hampering Meta’s Profits

Meta’s CEO criticized Apple for a lack of innovation and “random rules,” on a recent podcast.

And those rules, Mark Zuckerberg argued, hinder Meta’s profits, CNBC reported Friday (Jan. 10), citing comments made on an episode of the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast.

“On the one hand, [the iPhone has] been great, because now pretty much everyone in the world has a phone, and that’s kind of what enables pretty amazing things,” Zuckerberg told Rogan.

“But on the other hand … they have used that platform to put in place a lot of rules that I think feel arbitrary and [I] feel like they haven’t really invented anything great in a while. It’s like Steve Jobs invented the iPhone, and now they’re just kind of sitting on it 20 years later.”

He argued that iPhone sales are flagging because consumers were waiting to upgrade their devices, waiting for more improved models.

“So how are they making more money as a company? Well, they do it by basically, like, squeezing people, and, like you’re saying, having this 30% tax on developers by getting you to buy more peripherals and things that plug into it,” Zuckerberg said. “You know, they build stuff like AirPods, which are cool, but they’ve just thoroughly hamstrung the ability for anyone else to build something that can connect to the iPhone in the same way.”

Meta last year offered advertisers a way to avoid the 30% service charge levied by Apple. The offer lets businesses that use boosted posts on Facebook and Instagram can go to those platform’s websites on mobile or desktop devices to boost their content and not pay the service charge.

PYMNTS has contacted Apple for comment but has not yet gotten a reply.

In the podcast interview, Zuckerberg contended that Apple defends itself from criticism from other companies by saying it wants to protect user privacy and security. He added that it could solve that problem by improving its protocol, such as building better security and using encryption.

“It’s insecure because you didn’t build any security into it. And then now you’re using that as a justification for why only your product can connect in an easy way,” Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg added that if Apple stopped applying its “random rules,” Meta’s profit would double.

Apple and Meta reportedly considered working together last year, with the Facebook owner offering to integrate its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot into the iPhone. However, Apple apparently rejected Meta’s proposal following two brief discussions.