Neil Cybart 9/26/24 Neil Cybart 9/26/24

The Design Story Behind AirPods 4, Google Stresses Antitrust Long Game

Hello everyone. Tomorrow’s update will be dedicated to discussing Meta's Connect 2024 event. What took place at Menlo Park marked a new kind of low for the consumer tech industry. We will discuss it all tomorrow.

For today’s update, we are going to focus on AirPods. The discussion will then turn to a quick update on the Google antitrust front.

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Neil Cybart 8/14/24 Neil Cybart 8/14/24

Thoughts on the U.S. v. Google Verdict (Part 2)

We will continue to focus on the U.S. v. Google verdict. After reading through the 286-page ruling, my notes came out to about three updates worth of material. After a significant amount of reduction and editing, we used two updates to talk about the ruling and its potential fallout (with Apple in mind). Yesterday’s update went over all of the interesting details / tidbits from the ruling. Today’s update is focused on my thoughts on the ruling and how Apple may be impacted.

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Neil Cybart 10/11/23 Neil Cybart 10/11/23

U.S. vs. Google, Apple in the Crosshairs, Satya Nadella Cries Wolf

Hello everyone. Today’s update is focused on the U.S. vs. Google search antitrust trial taking place in Washington. We begin with a brief summary of the trial. The discussion then turns to Neil’s thoughts on Eddy Cue’s and Satya Nadella’s testimonies.

U.S. vs. Google

Last month, the Justice Department’s civil trial against Google kicked off in Washington. The trial is focused on Google search with a spotlight put on Google’s deal with Apple to be default search on Safari.

The argument being made by the U.S. Justice Department is that these default search deals have helped Google prevent competitors, like Microsoft, from getting search queries and therefore the ability to improve their own search product(s). The agreements with Apple etc. are also said to hurt innovation as Google doesn’t need to do as much to maintain its search position since it can simply pay for continued prioritized access to users. All of this is alleged to result in higher prices for advertisers and less choice for consumers.

Google’s response is that it has the best search product in the marketplace. As it pertains to the Apple deal,

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