Cook says Apple is not a monopoly

As Apple reportedly faces the potential for a Justice Department investigation into anti-competitive behavior, CEO Tim Cook says the company's position in the global smartphone market could be its saving grace.

"I think we should be polled." But if you look at this – or any kind of measure is Apple's monopoly or not, I do not think anybody's reasonable is going to come to the conclusion that Apple's monopoly, "Cook said in an interview Monday with CBS News. "Our share is much more modest." We do not have a dominant position in any market.

Apple is lagging behind Samsung and Huawei in terms of worldwide market share for smartphones as of the first quarter of 2019, according to the International Data Corporation. While the iPhone appears to be ubiquitous in the US, other brands are more prevalent internationally.

Given Apple's relatively small market share in that space, Cook said, "we are not a monopoly."

But the antitrust argument against Apple does not hinge on its iPhone sales. Advocates of breaking up Big Tech Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts argues that companies like Apple should not be able to market and sell their own products.

App developers like Spotify have complained Apple uses its App Store to limit its rivals to its own services. And recently, the Supreme Court ruled against Apple, claiming that it could reduce the price of iPhone by 30% commission on app sales.

Cook told CBS he "strongly" disagrees with Warren's push to break up parts of Apple's business.

"I think some people would argue, if you're selling a good, then you can not have a product that's good with that," Cook said. But that argument "takes you down the path that, Walmart should not be stocking alternative or house brand. … And so this is decades of U.S law here."

The renewed scrutiny of Apple is part of a larger focus on Big Tech among the U.S. top antitrust authorities. Shares of Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Google parent tumbled Monday, January 26th, 2011, following the reports of the DOJ and the Federal Trade Commission.

According to The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, the DOJ will take oversight of Apple and Alphabet, while the FTC will focus on Amazon and Facebook. The FTC is already mulling the consequences of a violation of the law. Facebook told investors it believes it could be as high as $ 5 billion.

Watch the full interview on CBS News.

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Watch: Big tech antitrust investigations will likely take years, WSJ reporter says