Mark Zuckerberg criticizes Apple for lack of innovation on Rogan podcast

Mark Zuckerberg had some things to say about Apple on Joe Rogan's podcast.

Meta's CEO made a noteworthy appearance on "The Joe Rogan Experience" on Friday, which naturally spawned plenty of clips and quotes to discuss. The one we're focusing on concerns Apple, which Zuckerberg accused of lacking technical innovation since the iPhone's launch in 2007, per CNBC. According to Zuckerberg, the iPhone itself was a good thing for getting smartphones into people's hands, but Apple's business practices since then have been disappointing.

"But on the other hand...they have used that platform to put in place a lot of rules that I think feel arbitrary, and [I] feel like they haven’t really invented anything great in a while," Zuckerberg said on the podcast. "It’s like Steve Jobs invented the iPhone, and now they’re just kind of sitting on it 20 years later."

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It's worth noting that Apple has launched or helped popularize other popular device categories since 2007. While Apple didn't invent tablets or wireless earbuds, its iPad and AirPods lineups have become so synonymous with their respective product categories that people often say "iPad" or "AirPods" to refer to any old tablet or pair of earbuds.

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Zuckerberg's larger point that none of that stuff has been as seismic as the iPhone still stands, but it's not like Apple has done nothingsince 2007.

Of course, Zuckerberg had more to say. The Meta CEO criticized Apple for its "random rules," such as taking 30 percent of profits from apps on the iOS App Store or the inability of third-party devices to work seamlessly with iPhones like AirPods. In Zuckerberg's words, this is how Apple makes money in a world where iPhone sales are slowing down.

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"So how are they making more money as a company? Well, they do it by basically squeezing people...having this 30 percent tax on developers by getting you to buy more peripherals and things that plug into it,” Zuckerberg said. "They build stuff like AirPods, which are cool, but they’ve just thoroughly hamstrung the ability for anyone else to build something that can connect to the iPhone in the same way.”

There's one last tidbit: Zuckerberg said the Apple Vision Pro "did not hit it out of the park" for Apple despite acknowledging that it is "one of the bigger swings" Apple has taken in some time. Of course, Zuckerberg is coming at this from the perspective of someone who runs a company that makes competing headsets. Still, he's not entirely wrong — Apple has reportedly substantially slowed down Vision Pro production due to low demand. 

That's about the extent of Zuckerberg's comments about Apple on Joe Rogan's podcast. For those of us old enough to remember NewsRadio or Fear Factor, that last part will never stop being weird.