Zuckerberg, known for his critical views of Apple, accused the company of relying on outdated innovations and using its control of the iPhone to impose a "30% tax" on developers through App Store fees.
"They haven’t really invented anything great in a while", Zuckerberg said. "It’s like Steve Jobs invented the iPhone and now they’re just kind of sitting on it 20 years later."
Zuckerberg suggested that iPhone sales may be declining because consumers are not updating their devices for longer due to the lack of significant improvements in each new generation.
"The number of sales, I think, has generally been flat to declining," he added. "So how are they making more money as a company? Well, they do it by basically like squeezing people and having this 30 percent tax on developers."
Zuckerberg also criticized Apple's closed ecosystem, specifically mentioning AirPods and the integration barriers Meta faced when developing its Ray-Ban smart glasses.
"They build stuff like AirPods, which are cool, but they’ve just thoroughly hamstrung the ability for anyone else to build something that can connect to the iPhone in the same way," Zuckerberg said, accusing Apple of hindering competition by not sharing its protocols.
He described how Meta asked Apple to provide access to the same protocols used by AirPods headphones to seamlessly connect to the iPhone, but Apple refused, citing security concerns.
"They told us that we could not use the protocol because it was not encrypted. It’s like, it’s insecure because you didn’t build any security into it. And then now you’re using that as a justification for why only your product can connect in an easy way," Zuckerberg stated.
Afterward, Zuckerberg expressed concern that Apple might release its own version of smart glasses integrated with the iPhone, which could pose a challenge to Meta's augmented reality plans.
"I'm optimistic that someone will get beat by someone," Zuckerberg said. "But I worry that they will release their version of our Ray-Ban glasses and it will work better because of their closed ecosystem."
Bloomberg previously reported that Apple is developing its own smart glasses that can directly compete with Meta's offerings.
The discussion then moved on to iMessage and the use of blue and green bubbles to distinguish between iPhone and Android users in Apple's messaging app. Zuckerberg argues that blue bubbles are a way to shame users of other devices, especially children and teenagers.
"For kids, it’s just sort of like, they embarrass you, right? They’re like, if you don’t have a blue bubble, you’re not cool", Zuckerberg believes.
Rogan and Zuckerberg also discussed the introduction of RCS (Rich Communication Services), a protocol designed to improve cross-platform messaging. However, during the podcast, they revealed that the RCS protocol does not currently offer encryption for iPhone users, and Apple said it is working to resolve this issue.
Zuckerberg concluded his criticism of Apple on the podcast by criticizing the company's recently released Vision Pro headset, a $3,500 mixed reality device that Apple claims will revolutionize personal computing.
"They shipped something for $3,500 that I think is worse than the thing that we shipped for $300 or $400," Zuckerberg said, referring to Meta's Quest headsets. "They’re a good technology company. I think their second and third version will probably be better than their first version. But it is obvious that the first version was not planned to work very well".
Despite the criticism, Zuckerberg acknowledged Apple's legacy as a leading technology company, but emphasized that it needs to increase the pace of innovation to remain competitive.