The DeanBeat: Apple must tread carefully lest it trample the game industry

Apple has a value of more than $2 trillion. But the behemoth is in danger of forgetting where it came from. One day, the federal government or the courts will conclude this treasure of a company has gotten too big and that maybe it is strangling competition and choking off the very values and freedoms that it espoused at its origins.

By listening to the smaller companies and people around it — those who give the company that enormous value — Apple can save itself from flying too close to the sun. We saw a small example of that this week. Apple was taking aim at some big targets with an update coming in iOS 14, which debuts in mid-September. It wanted to take a step toward greater user privacy, which has become one of Apple’s rallying cries — that privacy is a fundamental human right. At the same time, it was taking a swing at two other tech giants (and some would say smaller bullies), Google and Facebook, whose business models are built on knowing everything about us.