Max, this is a company that back in the day was the rebel, and now it's the most valuable company in the world. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, just in that stark way, of course, it's been a reversal, but in the same way that, you know, back 40 years ago, Apple was arguing that there were these larger competitors, IBM, you know, sort of most prominently, that were dominating unfairly. You have, you know, sort of a swirl of critics, including regulators around the world, the DOJ, as well as, you know, some of Apple's biggest partners starting to sort of loudly say that, you know, something needs to be done. And when you even when you look at the kind of like the body language, the language around these launches, you really see just how, you know, there is a gravity around Cupertino, not just today, not just on an announcement day, but in the tech industry in general and

really in the global economy more broadly. What about Apple's defense? Look, they just say that better Apple's defense. And, you know, this starts to parallel other sort of conversations around other large technology companies is essentially that customers love us, that like you're the Department of Justice, which dropped a big lawsuit back in March, you know, alleging customer harm. Apple says this thing that you're attacking, which is the fact that our stuff works better together than it does with anything else is exactly the thing that customers care about. It's the thing that has differentiated us and it's the thing that will, you know, make our products continue to sell well. So that's where the debate really is. Yeah, you know, I thought about that last night, Max. What a piece to drop on iPhone day of all days. I mean, the workouts, what, 4000 words. But I got through it.

And what you do is you document the history of this company and then pose the question for all the regulatory pressure, the strategy, the competition, will it matter? And I think in the short term, the answer is no. Yeah, I mean, the answer for sure in the short term is no. You know, the Department of Justice is saying, hey, it's really bad that you dominate all these markets, that you have all the profits, that like there are no competitors here. And, you know, that's those are exactly the sorts of things that Wall Street investors tend to like. You know, it's why Apple is the most valuable company in the world. I think when you start to ask, okay, what is the long term? What's going to be the long term consequence here? That's where the hard questions start. I mean, you do have a sense and this is a conversation that's been going

on probably for a decade, but it's gotten louder that Apple, you know, for all its reputation for innovation and so on, has maybe, you know, maybe lost a step, as critics would say. And then you do have these sort of very slow-moving regulatory actions. But regulatory actions that, of course, can have consequences. You know, we're seeing this Department of Justice, second Department of Justice case against Google, Department of Justice, seeking to break up Apple. You know, those are the kinds of things that Apple is going to have to contend with and perhaps contemplate in the years to come.

How Apple Sets the Rules

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