Apple Being Investigated for Price Fixing, New iPhone Features Revealed

The Russian equivalent of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has accused Apple of possible price fixing their iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus models.

The news comes as Apple gets set to launch their latest iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus with more advanced camera capabilities and confirmation that Apple is removing the existing headphone jack in favour of Bluetooth connectivity.

Insiders claim that the new standout features will be a dual-camera system on the larger iPhone, a re-engineered home button that responds to pressure with a vibrating sensation rather than a true physical click and the removal of the devices’ headphone jack.

The Wall Street Journal claims that while iPhone demand has waned in recent quarters, partly due to the lull between product launches, the device continues to be the major source of Apple’s revenue.

The new models will be critical to the Companies revenues going forward. Research shows that consumers are deserting the iPhone platform for Samsung Galaxy devices with the new Samsung Galaxy Note set to be a major competitor to Apple’s iPhone offering.

The new iPhones will retain the same 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screen sizes as their predecessors, the first of which was introduced in September 2014. Apple will remove the two innermost antenna lines that run across the back of the current iPhones, insiders said.

The dual cameras on the larger new iPhone will produce brighter photos with more detail, according to a person who has used a prototype version of the upcoming device.

The new iPhones will remove the headphone jack in favor of connectivity via Bluetooth and the charging port.

That will make room for a second speaker, said insiders. The move is a boom for headphone makers with tens of millions of consumers set to be forced to upgrade to Bluetooth headphones if a new iPhone is purchased.

Overnight Russia’s federal antitrust body announced that they have opened a case into possible price-fixing by Apple and some Russian smartphone retailers.

The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said it was investigating a claim that Apple and 16 resellers colluded to fix prices of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus on the local market starting in October 2015. The agency said prices had been set at the same level across a majority of retailers and held there for some time.

“The FAS believes that such a coincidence could be the result of a coordination of the pricing of Russian resellers by the Apple group of companies,” the agency said in a statement on its website.

About Post Author

David Richards

David Richards has been writing about technology for more than 30 years. A former Fleet Street journalist, he wrote the Award Winning Series on the Federated Ships Painters + Dockers Union for the Bulletin that led to a Royal Commission. He is also a Logie Winner for Outstanding Contribution To TV Journalism with a story called The Werribee Affair. In 1997, he built the largest Australian technology media company and prior to that the third largest PR company that became the foundation company for Ogilvy PR. Today he writes about technology and the impact on both business and consumers.