It’s not all smooth sailing for Apple in 2021: a handful of battles are hovering just over the horizon for the Cupertino-based company.
Here’s the thing about being one of the most prominent—and, by some measurements most valuable—company in the world: it paints a heck of a target on your back. Apple’s long found itself on the receiving end of attacks from competitors, smaller challengers, and the government, and that hasn’t changed in recent years. But as we flip our calendars over to 2021, there are already a handful of battles in progress that could have marked effects on Apple’s business in both the short and long terms. Of course, a company with as many resources as Apple may be able to weather the occasional squall, but every once in a while you get a perfect storm that’s harder to fend off. Let’s take a look at these three brewing fights and how they might force Apple to batten down its hatches in the year ahead. If you’ve been paying attention to tech news, you’ve probably seen the recent offensive launched by one of Apple’s rivals in Big Tech. Facebook has taken aim at an upcoming measure Apple is planning to implement: App Tracking Transparency. As Facebook would have it, this measure would completely destroy advertising on the Internet, especially impacting small businesses that predominantly rely on advertising to get their products out there. The social media giant has taken out full page ads in the Wall Street Journal, casting itself as a defender of those same small businesses in standing up to Apple’s tyranny.
