'iOS Is A Complete Monopoly': Chamath Palihapitiya Rallies For Apple Changes On 'All-In Podcast'

Over the last two episodes of the "All-In Podcast," hosts Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Friedberg and David Sacks have discussed calls to break up big technology companies and end monopolistic practices.

Apple’s App Store: Calls over Apple Inc AAPL are for the company’s iOS app store practices to change rather than slicing off units of the business. Apple has argued that third-party app stores could leave phones vulnerable.

Sacks said that 10% of Apple’s 2020 revenue came from the highly profitable app store and when it comes to adding third-party app stores, he supports it.

Several of the hosts argued that Apple has the same power that Microsoft Corporation MSFT had when it was said to have a monopoly over Windows.

“It’s worse than Windows,” Calacanis said.

Palihapitiya said the faster changes are made to Apple’s app store, the better it is for companies that create apps.

“iOS is a complete monopoly,” Palihapitiya said.

An argument from Apple over having competition from Alphabet Inc GOOGGOOGL and the Android app store falls short in Palihapitiya’s eyes.

Palihapitiya notes that Android has more users but has low average revenue per user and Apple remains the focus for app developers due to revenue possibilities. Snap Inc SNAP didn’t even have an app on iOS when going public, the host noted.

Breaking up the 30% revenue take is a huge first step according to Palihapitiya noting that Apple has done well with privacy concerns which will need to be considered for fixes.

An argument by Friedberg about Apple changing practices to meet consumer demand, including adding Google Chrome to Apple devices, was quickly negated by the other three.

“The only reason Chrome is there is the amount of money Google pays Apple for search,” Palihapitiya said.

Related Link: 5 Things You Might Not Know About Chamath Palihapitiya 

Breaking Up Big Tech: Apple was the main debate over the last two debates but the hosts also shared thoughts on breaking up Alphabet, Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN and Facebook, Inc. FB.

“I hope these companies get broken up,” Palihapitiya said.

The rejection of a case against Facebook was a gut punch to the argument by the FTC that the social media company has a monopoly, Palihapitiya added.

“Of all the big tech companies, the argument to break up Facebook is the weakest,” Palihapitiya said. The hosts discussed competition from Twitter Inc TWTR, TikTok, Snapchat and others.

A comment on Facebook having a monopoly was shared by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Twitter, which the hosts discussed being ironic as it showed that Facebook has competition in Twitter.