Mark Zuckerberg slams Apple for lack of innovation and 'random rules'

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg The tech giant slammed a competitor Apple for lackluster innovation efforts and “random rules” in a lengthy podcast interview Friday.

“On the one hand, (the iPhone) has been great, because now almost everyone in the world has a phone, and that's the kind of thing that makes things really possible amazing,” said Zuckerberg in an episode of the magazine. “The Joe Rogan Experience.” “But on the other hand … they have used that platform to impose a lot of rules that I think are arbitrary and (I) feel like they didn't create they nothing good in time. the iPhone, and now they're just kind of sitting on it 20 years later.”

Zuckerberg said he was thinking iPhone sales were struggling as users take longer to upgrade their phones because new models are not major improvements from previous iterations.

“So how do they make more money as a company? Well, they basically do it, like squeeze people, and, as you say, by getting this 30% tax on developers by forcing you to have more margins and things purchase. put it in,” Zuckerberg said. “You know, they build things like Air Pods, which are cool, but they've just really hindered anybody else's ability to build something that can connect to the iPhone in the same way.”

Apple defends itself against pushback from other companies by saying it doesn't want to compromise user privacy and security, according to Zuckerberg. But he said the problem would be solved if Apple fixed its protocol, such as building better security and using encryption.

“It's insecure because you didn't build any security into it. And then now you're using that as a justification why only your product can easily connect,” said Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg said that if Apple stopped using its “random rules”, Meta's profit would double.

He also took shots at Apple's Vision Pro headphoneswhich had disappointing US sales. Meta sells their own virtual reality headset called Meta Quest.

“I think the Vision Pro, I think, is one of the biggest moves in doing something new that they've tried in a while,” Zuckerberg said. “And no I don't want to give them too much of a hard time, because we do a lot of things where the first version isn't that good, and you want to judge the third version of it, the V1 , he certainly didn't hit it out of the park it.”

“I heard it's really good to watch movies,” he said.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.