Techcrunch blog!: Apple in trouble with the DOJ

Thursday, March 21, 2024

Good afternoon, and welcome to TechCrunch PM. Apple and Microsoft were all over the news today. The team has broken down a lot of it. We have an app that hopes to grab Mint users, and we look at how Reddit shares did today. We also cover some venture capital talk and show you that your next DoorDash delivery could be by drone. Let's dig in!

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— Christine

Image Credits: Apple

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TechCrunch PM Top 3

Normally, I bring you the top three stories of the day here, but who are we kidding? The TechCrunch team descended upon all of the Apple news to tell you what's going on, who's mad, who's happy, and generally what to make of all of this. Some highlights:

It all started this morning when the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit accusing Apple of monopolistic smartphone practices. Sixteen state attorneys general joined the federal department in the massive suit. You can read the lawsuit here.

Is Apple a monopoly? Perhaps, but not in the way Windows was a monopoly, writes Matt Rosoff.

Here are a few ways the DOJ considers Apple a monopoly: its "complete control" over tap-to-pay transactions, its battle with Beeper, the iMessage-to-Android solution and all those green bubbles!

Meanwhile, Apple is not really having any of it. The consumer tech giant dismissed this lawsuit, saying, "This lawsuit threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets."

Image Credits: Getty Images

Afternoon must-reads

Copilot, but not that Copilot: Mint is going away this week, and Copilot, a personal finance tracking app, has been busy. The founder told me the company grew more in the last four months than in the previous four years.

Reddit shares see that pop the IPO market likes: Is it too early to call it a win for tech stocks? Shares of social forum giant Reddit opened at $47 per share, then quickly soared 60%.

The Browser Company raises $50 million: Now valued at $550 million, the Arc browser maker is out to change the personal computer as we know it.

Let's talk about Microsoft: The tech giant made a number of announcements today, many of them surrounding Copilot (yes, that one), from getting its own key to Adaptive accessibility.

Changes over at Redis: The popular in-memory data store is switching away from the open source three-clause BSD license. Oh, and it made an acquisition.

Coast gets more funding: In a spend management category dominated by the likes of Brex and Ramp, Coast is swooping in with another round of funding to target a different set of businesses — businesses with "real-world" field personnel and fleets to manage companies like those in trucking, plumbing, HVAC, or last-mile delivery.

DoorDash by drone: Select users in Christiansburg, Virginia, ordering from their local Wendy's will be able to look into the sky for their order. DoorDash is expanding its partnership with Alphabet's Wing to bring its drone delivery pilot to the U.S.

AI can't spell: Yeah, we went there.

Image Credits: Copilot

Around the web

I'm biased when I say our coverage of Apple today is top-notch, but Verge had an interesting take on it that’s worth diving into.

Meanwhile, Business Insider writes that we are getting better at our jobs. The proof? Productivity is up.

And the first Neuralink patient can play chess in his mind! Insert "mind-blown" emoji here. TheStreet has more.

TechCrunch Minute

All about Microsoft's mega AI push after it hired Inflection AI's co-founders: Microsoft's latest gambit to snag much of the human talent from Inflection AI is causing waves this week. Redmond has previously invested in the company but is now absorbing much of its staff into a new division it created for just that purpose.

On the pods

On today's Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed Tegan Kline, the CEO and co-founder of Edge & Node. The company is focused on creating and supporting decentralized applications (dApps) and protocols. It was also the initial team behind The Graph, an indexing and query protocol, or what some have referred to as the Google of web3, which aims to organize open blockchain data and make open data a public good. Listen here.