“Apple used its influence to secure preferential treatment from mobile operators wanting to offer the iPhone, squeezing out competition from rival brands, according to a former senior executive at a major European operator,” Juliette Garside reports for The Guardian.
“The Guardian has been given a detailed description of an alleged three-year contract between Apple and the operator. The source, who asked not to be identified, said some colleagues had concerns about the legality of the contract, but that these were brushed aside because his company decided it needed access to Apple’s bestselling device,” Garside reports. “‘The marketing people were filled with joy about getting the iPhone,’ he said. ‘Our second thoughts from a legal point of view were overruled by the marketing people.'”
Garside reports, “The revelations come as the European commission considers whether to take action over Apple’s contracts with operators. Phone companies are beginning to push for a shift in the balance of power in their relationships with Apple, now that manufacturers like Samsung and Nokia have proved their ability to make smartphones of equal quality.”
MacDailyNews Take: Opinion – and a wrong one at that – reported as fact by The Guardian. About what other topics, if any, is The Guardian reporting opinion as fact?
Garside reports, “It is claimed Apple used the contract in question to state the maximum price a consumer should pay. This retail price was less than the operator paid to acquire the iPhone, and the difference was to be met by a subsidy from the operator. Crucially, the contract is alleged to have blocked more generous subsidies from being given to rival handset makers, using what are commonly known as ‘most favoured supplier’ clauses. Amazon, the online retailer, uses similar clauses in its dealings with publishers. If Apple is found to be a dominant player, this kind of preferential treatment could be challenged as breaching competition law.”
MacDailyNews Take: How can Apple be “a dominant player” when their market share is dwarfed by “Android?”
Garside reports, “Proving Apple’s dominance could be difficult. The world’s most valuable technology company had a 22% share of the smartphone market in Europe last year, according to research firm IDC – a far cry from the 40% usually considered a threshold for dominance.”
MacDailyNews Take: Exactly.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: No way! iPhone — the smartphone every carrier without a death wish wants and needs, the very device that has topped 9 consecutive J.D. Power smartphone user satisfaction lists, the phone where every successive model becomes the best-selling smartphone in history — was used by Apple to *gasp!* “secure preferential terms?”
Shocker.
You mean LG et al., sans a product that anybody with a brain wanted, weren’t able to “secure preferential terms?”
Amazing.
Welcome to Business 101.
Related article:
J.D. Power: Apple ranks highest in smartphone customer satisfaction for 9th consecutive time – March 21, 2013