Apple’s ecosystem game has been—at once—the envy and bane of the consumer electronics industry for decades. Following a lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice on Thursday, it is now also at the center of powerful antitrust charges brought against the hardware giant.
The sweeping lawsuit, filed jointly with the attorneys general of 16 states and the District of Columbia, focuses primarily on the iPhone and controversial practices such as the company’s proprietary approach to app sales. The Apple Watch also takes some time on deposit.
The suit correctly notes that the Apple Watch is “compatible only with the iPhone” — a long-standing complaint among Android users interested in getting what’s too far from the market share leader.
“So,” the filing continues, “if Apple can steer a user toward buying an Apple Watch, it will be more costly for that user to buy a different kind of smartphone because doing so requires the user to give up the expensive of the Apple Watch and buy a new, Android-compatible smartwatch.”
The filing goes on to cite the appeal of “cross-platform smartwatches,” which it claims “can reduce iPhone users’ reliance on Apple’s proprietary hardware and software.” There’s no doubt that a big part of Apple’s ecosystem game is forcing users to stick with its own hardware across a number of product lines. This is an important part of the “it just works” ethos.
However, Apple is not alone in ensuring that certain features only work as stated with first-party hardware. This has become an increasingly indispensable part of accessory products such as smart watches and Bluetooth headphones. One important difference, however, is that the majority of non-Apple devices in the world run the same operating system, offering an added layer of functionality between manufacturers.
The filing cites an internal message from an Apple vice president of product marketing, noting that the watch’s limited compatibility “may help prevent iPhone customers from switching.” The lawsuit primarily discusses the Apple Watch as it relates to iPhone sales, though it accuses the company of “restricting third-party access to new and improved APIs for smartwatch functionality.
The Apple Watch has historically been even more dominant in its respective category than the iPhone in the global market. If the Justice Department’s suit forces the company to open up the Apple Watch feature, it would not only limit watch-based iPhone sales, but also open up the device to Android users, which, in turn, could have positive impact on sales.
The filing’s authors also dug a little deeper into the Watch’s origins (and, perhaps, a nod to Pebble), writing that the company “copied the idea of a smartwatch from third-party developers.”
For more on Apple’s antitrust lawsuit, check here:
