Apple Watches are facing an import ban; the relevant court cases seem reasonable on all sides, and the Biden administration should let them play out.
Google Loses Antitrust Case to Epic; The Differences Between Apple and Google, Revisited; The Tying Question
Epic won its antitrust case against Google, which shouldn’t be a surprise to Stratechery readers: the situation is very different than Apple. What matters most in the decision, though, is tying.
Google’s Apple Payments; Apple Services: Narrative vs. Reality; Google’s Motivation
The juiciest detail yet came out of the Google antitrust case: how much the company pays Apple. This isn’t just a function of Apple’s leverage, but also Google’s strategic foresight.
FTC Sues Amazon
The FTC is suing Amazon, and some of the complaints are compelling, but ultimately not convincing.
Microsoft-Activision Updates; Reader Follow-Up; Free Speech, the Government, and Scale
An update on Microsoft-Activision, and then a response to a reader upset at my take, weaved in with commentary about free speech in the context of last week’s ruling about social media moderation.
Microsoft Can Acquire Activision, The FTC vs. the Record, The FTC’s Failed Vendetta
Microsoft didn’t just win its case against the FTC: the totality of its victory calls into question the FTC’s legitimacy, and may lead to more acquisitions in the future.
Meta’s Low E.U. ARPU, The Supreme Court and Section 230
Meta makes a surprisingly small amount of money in the E.U., particularly on an ARPU basis; then, the Supreme Court signals strong support for Section 230
Apple, Epic, and the Court of Appeals; Apple’s Federal Victory; Epic’s California Win
Apple seems to have won the Appeals Court case in the Epic antitrust lawsuit, but there was a meaningful victory for developers when it comes to the App Store’s anti-steering provision.
Fair Use and Model Training, Getty Images vs. Stable Diffusion, Adobe’s Regulatory Capture Bet
One of the biggest questions facing AI is if the ingestion of copyrighted material into model training is or is not fair use; Getty Images is suing to get an answer, and Adobe is trying to benefit in the meantime.
EU Narrows Apple Case, Snap’s My AI
The European Commission closes on a ruling that makes sense for Apple’s App Store, and Snap launches their own OpenAI-powered chat bot