Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – CEO Meta, Mark Zuckerberg threw harsh criticism at Apple for lack of innovation and App Store policies. He made these remarks during an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Friday (10/1/2025).
According to Zuckerberg, Apple no longer brings innovative products and relies solely on the iPhone created by Steve Jobs two decades ago. He also criticized the unfair access for other developers, including Meta, in creating products that are connected to Apple devices.
“On one hand, (the iPhone) is great, because now almost everyone in the world has a phone, and that enables amazing things,” said Zuckerberg.
But on the other hand, they use that platform to establish many rules that I think feel arbitrary and [I] feel they haven’t created anything great for a long time. It’s like Steve Jobs created the iPhone, and now they just let it be after 20 years,” Zuckerberg said as quoted by CNBC.
Furthermore, he said that iPhone sales are declining because consumers take longer to upgrade their phones as the new models do not have significant improvements from the previous iterations.
He believes that the 15%-30% fee charged by Apple is a way to hide the decline in iPhone sales. The fees charged by Apple to developers for using the App Store, which are considered high and detrimental.
“So, how do they make more money as a company? Well, they basically, like, drain people’s wallets, and, as you say, they impose a 30% tax on developers and make you buy more peripherals and things that connect to it,” Zuckerberg revealed.
Zuckerberg criticized Apple’s exclusive protocols that make it difficult for other developers to compete with products like AirPods.
“You know, they make cool stuff like Air Pods, but they really hinder other people’s ability to make something that can connect to the iPhone in the same way,” he said.
According to Zuckerberg, Apple defends itself from rejection by other companies by saying that they do not want to compromise consumer privacy and security. However, he stated that the issue would be resolved if Apple improved its protocols, such as building better security and using encryption.
“It’s not secure because you’re not building any security into it. And now you’re using it as a justification for why only your product can connect easily,” Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg said that if Apple stopped enforcing what he considers weird rules, Meta’s profit would double.
He also criticized Apple’s Vision Pro headset, which had disappointing sales in the US. Meta sells its own virtual headset called Meta Quest.
“I think the Vision Pro is one of the big breakthroughs in doing something new that they’ve been trying for a long time. And I don’t want to harp on it too much, because we did a lot of things where the first version wasn’t that good, and you want to judge the third version.”