Mark Zuckerberg takes swipe at Apple: 'They haven't really invented anything great in a while'
Mark Zuckerberg took a shot at Apple, criticizing how it "hasn't invented anything great" since the iPhone.
The Meta CEO made the comments about the Cupertino-based company in an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
"[I] feel like they (Apple) haven't really invented anything great in a while. It's like Steve Jobs invented the iPhone, and now they're just kind of sitting on it 20 years later."
"I think year over year, I'm not even sure they're selling more iPhones at this point. I think the sales might actually be declining. Part of it is that each generation doesn't actually get that much better."
In May 2024, the tech giant saw a steep quarterly decline in iPhone sales since the pandemic. Even with AI features through Apple Intelligence, pre-sales for the iPhone 16 were down 12% compared to the past year.
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo also said on Jan. 11 that iPhone sales have significantly dropped in mainland China by about 10% to 12% year on year. The latest lineup is also banned in Indonesia over the company's failure to meet local investment regulations.
On the podcast, Zuckerberg said that the tech giant has been "squeezing people" to make up for declining sales and imposing a "30% tax" on developers.
"They build stuff like AirPods, which are cool, but they've just thoroughly hamstrung the ability for anyone to build something that can connect to the iPhone the same way," he said.
The Facebook founder also took swipes at Apple's Vision Pro headset, which is a competitor to his Meta Quest. He called it the tech giant's "bigger swings" at doing a new thing.
"I heard it's really good for watching movies."
Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in 2007. Every year, the company releases a new model, adding improvements to its display, battery life, software, and cameras.
Meanwhile, Zuckerberg recently announced that Meta's fact-checking program will soon be replaced with a system similar to the user-powered Community Notes feature used in X. This move has been questioned by the International Fact-Checking Network.
