Apple CEO Tim Cook Feels Monopoly Isn't Bad If Companies Don't Abuse Their Power

Monopoly in a market might be great for the company on top, but it is extremely bad for the market as a whole, especially consumers.

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Existence of options not only helps consumers decide better but it also pushes companies to do better by creating healthy competition and bring innovation to the world. However, Apple CEO Tim Cook feels monopoly in a market isn¡¯t a bad thing.

Apple CEO said this in an interview with Nikkei Asian Review in Tokyo on Wednesday. He further stated, "A monopoly by itself isn't bad if it's not abused. The question for those companies is, do they abuse it? And that is for regulators to decide, not for me to decide."

He was also asked by the interviewer if Apple was a monopoly too, to which he insisted it wasn¡¯t. He added, ¡°We probably have more competitors than any company on earth,¡±

However, they¡¯re known to be tough on their charges and fees that has upset many companies in the past -- most recently Spotify with the 30 percent fee that Apple charges on subscriptions made on the App store. Spotify stands to compete against Apple¡¯s very own Apple Music service.

Spotify has been striving hard to keep the pricing of its services in control, however, it has stated that if this goes on they might have to eventually raise their prices to make ends meet.

Reuters

"In this interview, Apple was also said to be similar to other tech companies across the world when it comes to getting data from its users. Its recent Siri recordings fiasco completely ruined Apple¡¯s case as the most secure brand for users in the industry.

However, when asked about this Tim Cook disagreed to this notion stating this to the audience, ¡°It¡¯s very important to realize that tech itself and these large tech companies are not monolithic. You're not our product, that's very clear in our minds. We don¡¯t believe in trafficking you data.¡±