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

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One of many many weird claims all through the Division of Justice’s 88-page lawsuit towards Apple is that Apple someway killed the Amazon Hearth Cellphone. Additionally, Apple is seemingly guilty 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 embody 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 cell 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).

In the present day, solely Samsung and Google stay as significant opponents within the U.S. efficiency smartphone market. Obstacles are so excessive that Google is a distant third to Apple and Samsung although 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 function within the failure of the Amazon Hearth Cellphone is baseless, as are any strategies that Apple is why HTC, LG, or Microsoft exited the enterprise.

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

Customers voted with their wallets – and so they didn’t simply vote for the iPhone as an alternative of units from Amazon, LG, and HTC. Additionally they selected merchandise from Samsung, Google and different Android producers too.

I may title a bunch of different the reason why the Amazon Hearth Cellphone failed particularly:

It ran a forked model of Android … and didn’t supply entry to the Google Play Retailer.

It was solely out there by means of AT&T, whereas the iPhone was out there on all main carriers in america.

Regardless of the shortage 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 main aim, fairly blatantly, was to entice you to purchase extra stuff from Amazon. As evident by the shortage 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 guilty for Google buying HTC … a transfer that one may say is anticompetitive in and of itself.

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