No 240: Apple "Watch" #1

THIS post is very important for my Micro students particularly. For both A-level and IB Paper 1 you will need to know your own real-life Micro examples, and to do this, we will be following stories about Apple.

Here are 3 to start us off.

(1) EU orders Apple to get rid of Lightning cables: arguing that it excludes competitor cable makers and is inconvenient for consumers, the European Union is making Apple switch its iPhones and iPads from Lightning Cables to USB C.

Apple argues that Lightning Cables work better, allow more innovative products to be linked to them, and that switching away from them would create more e-waste.

This encapsulates a recurring argument between Apple and Regulators: government organisations claiming it is in Apple's interests to tie consumers into products that are not compatible with any other company's, whereas Apple arguing their products are more innovative and effective than others'.

Full article: appleforcedtousbc

(2) Spotify and Meta Vs Apple: both companies have accused Apple of anti-competitive behaviour through their rules about phone apps. They claim that Apple deliberately creates rules for other companies' apps that make them harder to consumers to use, making their own apps seem more user friendly and therefore more popular (e.g Spotify vs Apple Music).

Full article: spotifymetavsapple

(3) Apple's Revenue Increases: despite - or maybe because - of these accusations of anti-competitive behaviour, Apple's Quarter 2 earnings for this year are up 8%. The main area of growth was in its sales of laptops.

These results are particularly strong since competitors like Amazon and Meta have recently announced large falls in revenue.

This to me indicates two strengths of Apple compared to others. First, they have an extremely loyal consumer base who still continues buying their products even in poor economic times. Second, that they benefit from diversity of products. For example, Netflix relies solely on the popularity of its media streaming for its revenues and profits, whereas for Apple, its streaming service Apple TV is only one source of money and so if it is unprofitable, other parts of the company can make up for that loss.

Full article: applerevenueincreases