Breaking down the DOJ’s declare that Apple killed the Amazon Hearth Telephone (and others)

One of many many weird claims all through the Division of Justice’s 88-page lawsuit in opposition to Apple is that Apple in some way killed the Amazon Hearth Telephone. Additionally, Apple is seemingly accountable for HTC, LG, and Microsoft exiting the smartphone enterprise.

Right here’s the complete excerpt from the DOJ’s submitting yesterday:

Many outstanding, well-financed firms have tried and did not efficiently enter the related markets due to these entry boundaries. Previous failures embrace Amazon (which launched its Hearth cell phone in 2014 however couldn’t profitably maintain its enterprise and exited the next 12 months); Microsoft (which discontinued its cellular enterprise in 2017); HTC (which exited the market by promoting its smartphone enterprise to Google in September 2017); and LG (which exited the smartphone market in 2021).

At this time, solely Samsung and Google stay as significant opponents within the U.S. efficiency smartphone market. Boundaries are so excessive that Google is a distant third to Apple and Samsung even though Google controls growth of the Android working system.

Primarily, the DOJ is arguing that any firm which tried and did not make a smartphone failed due to Apple’s dominance.

9to5Mac’s Take

The notion that Apple performed any position within the failure of the Amazon Hearth Telephone is baseless, as are any strategies that Apple is why HTC, LG, or Microsoft exited the enterprise.

Has the DOJ thought of that possibly Amazon, LG, and HTC failed as a result of they didn’t make merchandise that customers needed? All three firms relied on Android as their working techniques. And as everyone knows, different Android producers have discovered success available in the market.

Shoppers voted with their wallets – they usually didn’t simply vote for the iPhone as a substitute of gadgets from Amazon, LG, and HTC. In addition they selected merchandise from Samsung, Google and different Android producers too.

I might identify a bunch of different the reason why the Amazon Hearth Telephone failed specifically:

• It ran a forked model of Android … and didn’t supply entry to the Google Play Retailer.
• It was solely accessible by AT&T, whereas the iPhone was accessible on all main carriers in the US.
• Regardless of the dearth of apps and plastic design, it was $200 with a two-year contract – matching the iPhone and different top-end Android telephones.
• It didn’t have apps.
• Its major purpose, fairly blatantly, was to entice you to purchase extra stuff from Amazon. As evident by the dearth of third-party apps.
• It was late to the market, and Amazon gave up after a 12 months.
• Did I point out it didn’t have any apps?

Additionally weird is the allegation that Apple is accountable for Google buying HTC … a transfer that one might say is anticompetitive in and of itself.