US sues Apple over smartphone ‘monopoly’, citing cloud gaming as a key example

The US has filed a lawsuit against Apple, accusing it of illegally limiting competitors and holding a monopoly over the smartphone market.

In its lawsuit, the US Department of Justice gives five key examples of areas in which Apple allegedly supresses competition, one of which is cloud streaming game apps (the others are ‘super apps’, messaging, smartwatches and digital wallets).

The cloud gaming section argues that Apple has prevented developers from offering cloud gaming apps on the App Store, claiming that one of the main reasons for this is to force them to buy more expensive hardware.

The argument made is that if players could stream games over the cloud with App Store apps, they could play visually impressive games using older Apple devices, rather than having to update to more powerful and expensive hardware to do so.

“For years, Apple blocked cloud gaming apps that would have given users access to desirable apps and content without needing to pay for expensive Apple hardware because this would threaten its monopoly power,” the lawsuit claims.

It later explains: “Cloud streaming allows developers to bring cutting-edge technologies and services to smartphone consumers – including gaming and interactive artificial intelligence services – even if their smartphone includes hardware that is less powerful than an iPhone.”

It adds: “Apple has promoted the iPhone 15 by promising that its hardware is powerful enough to enable ‘next-level performance and mobile gaming’. But powerful hardware is unnecessary if games are played via cloud streaming apps.”

“Cloud gaming apps deliver rich gaming experiences on smartphones without the need for users to purchase powerful, expensive hardware,” it continues.

“As a result, users with access to cloud streamed games may be more willing to switch from an iPhone to a smartphone with less expensive hardware because both smartphones can run desirable games equally well.”

The lawsuit accuses Apple of blocking cloud streaming apps for this