Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg couldn’t bear it anymore and said directly on the most popular podcast program “The Joe Rogan Experience” in the United States: “Apple has not had any major innovations since Steve Jobs invented the iPhone!”
He even directly criticized Apple for “extracting users’ money”, saying that it takes a 30% commission through the App Store and limits the possibility of third-party developers interconnecting with the iPhone.
The remarks reignited a decade-long feud between the two tech giants. What is it about these two tech companies that makes them so incompatible?
From data privacy to business models, the fundamental differences between the two giants are exposed
According to “Business Insider”, this feud began in 2014, when Apple CEO Tim Cook took the lead in an interview: “Just look at chasing money. If a company mainly relies on collecting a large number of individuals Data makes money, so you should be worried.”
Cook later stated bluntly in an open letter on Apple’s privacy page: “When online services are free, you are not a customer, but a commodity.” These remarks directly refer to Google and Facebook, which profit from collecting user data. The business model also revealed the fundamental differences between the two technology giants on data privacy and business models.
Zuckerberg scoffed at this and ridiculed Apple for exploiting consumers with high-priced products: “Does it mean that just because you pay Apple that they really care about you? If they really cared about their users, their product prices wouldn’t be so high!”
In 2018, the “Cambridge Analytica scandal” broke out on Facebook. It was revealed that the political consulting company Cambridge Analytica had stolen the personal information of 50 million users for political propaganda without users’ consent. After this incident, Cook launched another attack.
When asked how he would handle this crisis, he responded: “I would not put myself in this situation.” These words angered Zuckerberg so much that, according to the New York Times, he even Ordered the management team to abandon iPhones and switch to Android phones.
Apple caused Facebook to lose tens of billions of dollars in one fell swoop, and the conflict reached its peak The conflict between the two sides will reach its peak in 2021.
Apple’s iOS 14.5 update requires apps to obtain user consent to track their data, a move that has cost Facebook an estimated $10 billion. Meta immediately placed full-page advertisements in mainstream media such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, accusing Apple of severely damaging the advertising effectiveness of small businesses.
This century-old dispute also extends to the metaverse. After Apple launched the $3,499 Vision Pro in February 2024, Zuckerberg posted a video on his social platform account, claiming that Meta’s Quest was not only 7 times cheaper, but also had superior overall functional performance.
A new AI chatbot cooperation project also broke down due to privacy issues
The latest point of divergence is AI chatbots. According to Bloomberg, Apple once wanted to cooperate with Meta to discuss the possibility of introducing the Llama AI chatbot developed by Meta into the iPhone, but it fell through because Meta’s privacy protection measures did not meet Apple standards. In the end, Apple chose to cooperate with OpenAI.
This decade-long battle between technology giants has evolved from an initial conflict of ideas on business models and privacy issues to a full-scale showdown on data use, and now has expanded to include a battle in the fields of AR glasses and AI.
With the advent of the AI era, the battle between data and privacy will continue to be fought on the battlefield of artificial intelligence.
