Appeals court rejects Apple's fee pause
Agencies
A three-judge appeals panel rejected Apple's request to pause an April 30 order banning the company from charging a fee on in-app iPhone transactions processed outside its once-exclusive payment system in a two-page decision issued late Thursday.
The setback threatens to divert billions of dollars in revenue away from Apple while it tried to overturn the order reining in its commissions from e-commerce within iPhone apps.
Apple sought to put the order on hold after it was issued by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers in a stinging rebuke that also held the Cupertino, California, company in civil contempt of court and recommended opening a criminal investigation into whether one of its executives had committed perjury while testifying in her Oakland, California, courtroom.
It marked another twist of the screw in a legal battle initiated nearly five years ago by video game maker Epic Games, which alleged Apple had turned the iPhone's app store had been turned into a price-gouging monopoly.
The antitrust case focused largely on the 15% to 30% commissions that Apple rakes in from a portion of the commerce conducted within iPhone apps under a system that prohibited app makers from offering alternative payment methods.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Qatar Tribune
6 hours ago
- Qatar Tribune
Plenty of polish, little progress: Apple's WWDC falls flat
Agencies After a rocky start in the fierce competition among tech giants to harness artificial intelligence, Apple aimed to recover its momentum on Monday at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), where the focus remained largely on gradual improvements and aesthetic updates to its technology. The presummer rite, which attracted thousands of developers from nearly 60 countries to Apple's Silicon Valley headquarters, was more subdued than the feverish anticipation that surrounded the event during the previous two years. Apple highlighted plans for more AI tools designed to simplify people's lives and make its products even more intuitive while also providing an early glimpse at the biggest redesign of its iPhone software in a decade. In doing so, Apple executives refrained from issuing bold promises of breakthroughs that punctuated recent conferences, prompting CFRA analyst Angelo Zino to deride the event as a 'dud' in a research note. In 2023, Apple unveiled a mixed-reality headset that has been little more than a niche product, and last year WWDC trumpeted its first major foray into the AI craze with an array of new features highlighted by the promise of a smarter and more versatile version of its virtual assistant, Siri – a goal that has hasn't been achieved yet. 'This work needed more time to reach our high-quality bar,' Craig Federighi, Apple's top software executive, said Monday at the outset of the conference. The company didn't provide a precise timetable for Siri's AI upgrade to be finished but indicated it won't happen until next year, at the earliest. 'The silence surrounding Siri was deafening,' said Forrester Research analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee. 'No amount of text corrections or cute emojis can fill the yawning void of an intuitive, interactive AI experience that we know Siri will be capable of when ready. We just don't know when that will happen. The end of the Siri runway is coming up fast, and Apple needs to lift off.' The showcase unfolded amid nagging questions about whether Apple has lost some of the mystique and innovative drive that turned it into a tech trendsetter during its nearly 50-year history. Instead of making a big splash as it did with the Vision Pro headset and its AI suite, Apple took a mostly low-key approach that emphasized its effort to spruce up the look of its software with a new design called 'Liquid Glass' while also unveiling a new hub for its video games and new features like a 'Workout Buddy' to help manage physical promised to make Apple's software more compatible with the increasingly sophisticated computer chips that have been powering its products while also making it easier to toggle between the iPhone, iPad, and Mac.'Our product experience has become even more seamless and enjoyable,' Apple CEO Tim Cook told the crowd as the 90-minute showcase wrapped up. IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo said Apple seemed to be largely using Monday's conference to demonstrate the company still has a blueprint for success in AI, even if it's going to take longer to realize the vision that was presented a year ago. 'This year's event was not about disruptive innovation, but rather careful calibration, platform refinement and developer enablement – positioning itself for future moves rather than unveiling game-changing technologies,' Jeronimo said. Besides redesigning its software. Apple will switch to a method that automakers have used to telegraph their latest car models by linking them to the year after they first arrive at dealerships. That means the next version of the iPhone operating system, due out this autumn, will be known as iOS 26 instead of iOS 19 – as it would be under the previous naming approach that has been used since the device's 2007 debut. The iOS 26 upgrade is expected to be released in September, around the same time Apple traditionally rolls out the next iPhone models. In an early sign that AI wasn't going to be a focal point of this year's conference, Apple opened the proceedings with a short video clip featuring Federighi speeding around a track in a Formula 1 race car. Although it was meant to promote the June 27 release of the Apple film, 'F1' starring Brad Pitt, the segment could also be viewed as an unintentional analogy to the company's attempt to catch up to the rest of the pack in AI technology. While some of the new AI tricks compatible with the latest iPhones began rolling out late last year as part of free software updates, the delays in a souped-up Siri became so glaring that the chastened company stopped promoting it in its marketing campaigns earlier this year. While Apple has been struggling to make AI that meets its standards, the gap separating it from other tech powerhouses is widening. Google keeps packing more AI into its Pixel smartphone lineup while introducing more of the technology into its search engine to dramatically change the way it works. Samsung, Apple's biggest smartphone rival, is also leaning heavily into AI. Meanwhile, ChatGPT recently struck a deal that will bring former Apple design guru Jony Ive into the fold to work on a new device expected to compete against the iPhone.
Qatar Tribune
2 days ago
- Qatar Tribune
Apple under pressure to show it maintained magic after AI slip
Agencies Pressure is building up for Apple to demonstrate it hasn't lost its magic despite broken promises to ramp up iPhones with generative artificial intelligence as rivals continue to race ahead with the technology. Apple will showcase plans for its coveted devices and the software powering them at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicking off Monday in Silicon Valley. The event comes a year after the tech titan said a suite of AI features it dubbed 'Apple Intelligence' was heading for iPhones, including an improvement of its much criticized Siri voice assistant. 'Apple advertised a lot of features as if they were going to be available, and it just didn't happen,' noted Emarketer senior analyst Gadjo Sevilla. Instead, Apple delayed the rollout of the Siri upgrade, with hopes that it will be available in time for the next iPhone release, expected in the fall. 'I don't think there is going to be that much of a celebratory tone at WWDC,' the analyst told Agence France-Presse (AFP). 'It could be more of a way for Apple to recover some credibility by showing where they're headed.' Industry insiders will be watching to see whether Apple addresses the AI stumble or focuses on less splashy announcements, including a rumored overhaul of its operating systems for its line of devices. 'The bottom line is Apple seemed to underestimate the AI shift, then over-promised features, and is now racing to catch up,' Gene Munster and Brian Baker of Deepwater Asset Management wrote in a WWDC preview note. Rumors also include talk that Apple may add gen AI partnerships with Google or Perplexity to an OpenAI alliance announced a year ago. Infusing its lineup with AI is only one of Apple's who build apps and tools to run on the company's products, may be keen for Apple to loosen its tight control of access to iPhones. 'There's still a lot of strife between Apple and developers,' Sevilla said. 'Taking 30% commissions from them and then failing to deliver on promises for new functionality-that's a double black eye.' A lawsuit by Fortnite maker Epic Games ended with Apple being ordered to allow outside payment systems to be used at the U.S. App Store, but developers may want more, according to the analyst. 'Apple does need to give an olive branch to the developer community, which has been long-suffering,' Sevilla said. 'They can't seem to thrive within the restrictive guardrails that Apple has been putting up for decades now.' As AI is incorporated into Apple software, the company may need to give developers more ability to sync apps to the platform, according to Creative Strategies analyst Carolina Milanesi. 'Maybe with AI it's the first time that Apple needs to rethink the open versus closed ecosystem,' Milanesi said. Adding to the WWDC buildup is that the legendary designer behind the iPhone, Jony Ive, has joined with ChatGPT maker OpenAI to create a potential rival device for engaging with AI. 'It puts Apple on the defensive because the key designer for your most popular product is saying there is something better than the iPhone,' Sevilla said. While WWDC has typically been a software-focused event, Apple might unveil new hardware to show it is still innovating, the analyst speculated. And while unlikely to come up at WWDC, Apple has to deal with tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump in his trade war with China, a key market for sales growth as well as the place where most iPhones are made. Trump has also threatened to hit Apple with tariffs if iPhone production wasn't moved to the U.S., which analysts say is impossible given the costs and capabilities. 'The whole idea of having an American-made iPhone is a pipe dream; you'd have to rewrite the rules of global economics,' said Sevilla. One of the things Apple has going for it is that its fans are known for their loyalty and likely to remain faithful regardless of how much time it takes the company to get its AI act together, Milanesi said. 'Do people want a smarter Siri? Hell yeah,' Milanesi said. 'But if you are in Apple, you're in Apple and you'll continue to buy their stuff.'
Qatar Tribune
2 days ago
- Qatar Tribune
The Trump effect: Apple shifts operations from China to India amidst ongoing tariffs, trade war
Agencies New York The heat from US President Donald Trump's trade war against China may have turned down a notch after the two countries reached a temporary truce in mid-May, but Trump's tariff policy has created a climate of uncertainty among American companies with operations in China. Tech companies reliant on Chinese components, technology, and skills are particularly hard hit, and under pressure to move their operations away from China, preferably to the US. Even the iconic Apple iPhone brand has not escaped unscathed. Caught in the crossfire of the US-China trade war and in a bid to avoid falling foul of the resulting economic fallout of the tensions between Washington and Beijing,Apple is gradually moving its iPhone production from China to India. Trump has temporarily pulled back on his 145 percent tariff hike against China, which in turn suspended its retaliatory tariffs against the US of up to 125 iPhones are, for now, exempt from US tariffs, the components used for their production are not, and companies like Apple find themselves in the eye of Trump's anti-China tsunami. Despite a five percent growth in net profit and revenue for its fiscal second quarter,Apple predicts losses in the coming fiscal months as a result of the trade CEO Tim Cook, fearful that the trade and tariff situation is unlikely to change, is moving swiftly to protect his company by relocating some of its operations from China to India. Beijing's loss is becoming New Delhi's gain, with the company indicating that the majority of iPhones in the US market would soon be imported from India, where the company has had a decades-long presence. In 2016,Cook visited the country and announced the establishment of an iOS developers lab in Bengaluru, India's Silicon Valley. In 2022, Apple's investment in India grew further when the company decided to make its iPhone 14 models in that country. Apple's first stores in India opened in 2023. According to reports, India already makes one in five iPhones used worldwide, assembling $22 billion worth of iPhones between March 2024 and March 2025, and increasing its production by 60 percent as it shifts production away from China. Further boosting Apple's presence in India is the recent decision by the main manufacturer of its iPhones, the Hon Hai Precision Industry Company, to invest $1.5 billion into its India unit. Hon Hai, which has been building new plants and adding production capacity in southern India, is also increasing its investments in the US to mitigate the geopolitical headwinds arising from further tariffs. Union telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has welcomed the investment by Apple and other original equipment manufacturers (OEM), saying: 'Apple has decided to source and produce all its mobile phones in India in the years to come…you are choosing affordability, you are choosing reliability, you are choosing originality.' Minister of State for Telecommunication Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani noted India's remarkable transformation from an importer of mobile phones in 2014 to a leading producer and exporter. Meanwhile, as insurance against the geopolitical impact of the Trade War, Apple, which does not produce smartphones in the US, has pledged to spend $500 billion in America over the next four years and employ more workers domestically. While Apple and other tech companies operating from China are mulling over their options amidst Trump's see-saw trade policies,the iPhone manufacturer's increased investment in India is a welcome boost for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' programme. This initiative seeks to create and encourage companies to develop, manufacture, and assemble products in India.
