Mark Zuckerberg has been busy recently, as Meta Platforms (META) has announced several significant changes. Last week, however, he found time to sit down with Joe Rogan to share his take on many things as his industry nears a pivotal turning point.
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Facebook has recently faced criticism for ending fact-checking on the platform and replacing it with a system similar to X’s Community Notes. However, while Zuckerberg discussed the state of social media and what he sees as necessary for the industry, he didn’t focus too much on that; instead, he took the opportunity to issue some blunt words for one of his rivals.
Zuckerberg has a long history of criticizing this company. In 2020, he accused them of blocking innovation and competition, attempting to frame their actions as harmful to customers. Now, he seems intent on taking these attacks even further.
Mark Zuckerberg recently told Joe Rogan all about his take one one of Meta Platform’s big tech rivals.
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Zuckerberg doesn’t hold back while calling out rival
During his appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, Zuckerberg identified some of his problems with one of his Magnificent 7 rivals. The Meta CEO has criticized other companies in the space before, but in this case, he didn’t hold back and issued some blunt words for Apple (AAPL) .
As noted, this is by no means the first time that Zuckerberg has taken shots at Apple. In 2020, he accused the tech leader of having a “stranglehold” over the apps that iPhone users can download, alleging that the company can charge “monopoly rents” as a result.
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This time, however, he seems to have new issues with Apple. Throughout the hour-long podcast, Zuckerberg stated that as he sees it, Apple hasn’t invented anything important since former CEO Steve Jobs first introduced the iPhone.
He went on to lay out what he sees as a blatant lack of progress from Apple on both the innovation and business fronts, stating:
“I think, year over year, I’m not even sure they’re selling more iPhones at this point. I think like the sales might actually be declining. Part of it is that each generation doesn’t actually get that much better. So people are just taking longer to upgrade than they would before.”
Zuckerberg added that he thinks Apple’s iPhone sales have “generally been flat to declining,” though he did not provide any evidence to support this claim. He also questioned how Apple has continued to make money despite its issues, accusing the company of “squeezing people and having this 30 percent tax on developers.”
While Zuckerberg did quickly praise the Apple AirPods, he followed it by arguing that Apple has hindered the ability of other companies to build devices that can easily connect to the iPhone. He highlighted the specific protocol that Apple has built to ensure easy connection to wireless headphones.
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“It’s just much more seamless because they’ve enabled that, but they don’t let anyone else use the protocol,” he stated. “If they did, there would probably be much better competitors to AirPods out there.”
Meta CEO predicts that Apple will lose but doesn’t seem confident
As Zuckerberg sees it, this alleged lack of innovation could be Apple’s undoing. He also noted that he is highly optimistic that a competitor will beat the tech leader reasonably soon as it has been “off [its] game in terms of not releasing innovative things.”
That said, Zuckerberg also seems concerned that Apple may overtake his company in the smart glasses market.
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His company has recently been in focus for its Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, which come with Meta’s integrated artificial intelligence (AI) technology. However, according to a report published in November 2024, Apple may also be exploring a foray into this type of wearable technology.
Following the success of the Apple Vision Pro headset, it might make sense for Apple to shift focus to perfecting its own type of smart glasses technology. And as Zuckerberg highlighted, the same integration technology that allows AirPods to connect to an iPhone seamlessly could give them an advantage if they bring a pair of smart glasses to market.
Apple hasn’t provided any updates on its plans for smart glasses recently, but Zuckerberg’s statements suggest that he is concerned, despite alleging a ‘lack of innovation’ from Meta’s rival.
If the company is making progress on a device that can challenge the Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, though, it could be precisely what the company needs to pull it out of the current innovation loop.
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