Apple Clashes With UK Regulator in Fierce Response to Warning That Could Require It to 'Redesign the iPhone'

[Sophisticatednut]

According to a report by Google barely 0.6% of Android users (which is admittedly a few million users) bothered to side load and 90+% of app installs are from the play store, even with Chinese OEMs and Samsung running their own storefronts.

The point is powers that be seem to think there is a usage case for opening up iOS along the same lines but honestly not even Android users bother to use the facility so why even bother? Who here has ever honestly looked at the price of an app and gone “I wish I could download it from another storefront.”?

So… what is apple afraid of them? Losing 0.6% of users?

 

[I7guy]

[…].

iPhones are a status symbol.

Opinion based on your biases.

People use it for many reasons.

100%.

Security is not one of them.

In your opinion.

Hipsters and technology illiterate people and teenagers doesn’t know anything how this works. Security conscious people are a minority

Many people don’t know how to change a tire either.

 

[maximusstjohn]

Everyone is parroting the line because apple isn’t implementing bleeding edge carnage like chrome and Firefox.

The browser feature set and the www these days is looking like an Indian train at rush hour held together with poop and sticky tape. It’s an absolute garbage fire and people have been sold the line that because more garbage isn’t being throw at the fire that the particular fire isn’t good enough.

Hahahaha thats an amazing line to describe current browser and www.

 

[paulypants]

Would be funny if Apple just stopped selling iOS devices in the UK because of this.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Would be funny if Apple just stopped selling iOS devices in the UK because of this.

I have no clue why people say stuff like this.
This is not the only country with major beefs with Apple right now…

It is not feasible or intelligent for Apple to just start pulling out of every country where they are having a temper tantrum about not getting everything they want on their terms.

For those that care about Apple the company and their long-term future ….they need to be reading the room and proactively adjusting things ….not just digging in and getting dragged kicking and screaming across the line.

 

[I7guy]

So… what is apple afraid of them? Losing 0.6% of users?

Having their ip regulated away from those who don’t know their ass from their elbow.

 

[I7guy]

I have no clue why people say stuff like this.
This is not the only country with major beefs with Apple right now…

It is not feasible or intelligent for Apple to just start pulling out of every country where they are having a temper tantrum about not getting everything they want on their terms.

For those that care about Apple the company and their long-term future ….they need to be reading the room and proactively adjusting things ….not just digging in and getting dragged kicking and screaming across the line.

In the past, Apple has threatened to pull out of the UK.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

In the past, Apple has threatened to pull out of the UK.

They have but it wouldn’t be the end of the world. We’d just use Androids instead. It would be annoying for those of us who have used iPhones for over a decade but people would adapt and it’s not like smartphones don’t all do the same thing effectively anyway.

 

[Alan Wynn]

Sycophantic rhetoric aside, it's all about money and shareholder return.

If you mean revenue from the App Store, you are simply wrong. If you mean the model/brand they have built around privacy, you are correct.

 

[azentropy]

I doubt the vast majority of those of us using iPhones now would bother challenging it though. It’s often about what offers carriers are providing and I personally think people would just get what was easiest. If Apple pulled their iPhones from the UK market it would cause uproar amongst some, but I can’t see it forcing a tech revolution here. It would ultimately harm Apple more than the consumer because it’s not like there are not options other than the iPhone. The UK used to be Europe’s largest iPhone market (might still be), but even then Android is still very popular overall.

People on this forum often say ‘Apple should just pull out of that country’ without really thinking about the impact from a business perspective. Apple is wealthy but the billions they get from the UK still count.

I completely disagree. You are assuming that the people and business would back or accept the government regulators/polititions. Instead I think they would push back forcing the regulators/politicians etc. to back down.

 

[danakin]

If you mean revenue from the App Store, you are simply wrong. If you mean the model/brand they have built around privacy, you are correct.

Nope, not wrong at all. Every decision they (and pretty much every for-profit company) make is about making more money. Nothing wrong with that in a capitalistic paradigm. Whether it's privacy, locking in iMessage, reversing course on "what happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone", reversing course on making FaceTime an open standard, etc. the answer to all your questions is "money".
Naiveté sucks!

 

[genovelle]

I am always impressed at how Apple's legal filings and other such documents are in lock-step with their general PR and marketing.

Also let me take this opportunity to remind folks that "side-loading" is just installing.

Side loading is more than installing. It is deactivating the security protocols for a subset of developers. It means there will have to create a back door. This will also require them to figure out how to somehow manage the barrage of malware that will increase exponentially overnight. Something Google has been unable to do. The reason why they were moving closer to Apple’s model. Unlike Apple, they really don’t care if you get hacked and had resisted locking things down more because doing so, would limit the data they could extract as well.

 

[subjonas]

If it’s “their business”, why would he have a point about 50% being too much?

With your line of thinking on this, they should be able to charge any number they want, correct?

Absolutely. In a free market, they could charge 100%. But no one would agree to pay anything near that high and Apple would go out of business. So they are forced to come down to a percentage people would pay to make it worth it to them. That’s the self-regulating free market at work.

How interesting, can you perhaps still use the AppStore and not side load when apple makes the changes?

If Facebook removed their app on the store you can always login with safari or use other apps etc etc. or just vote with your money and not download apps outside the store.

But you’re using the same argument that supports why the government doesn’t need to force Apple to open up the iPhone in the first place. If consumers don’t like closed ecosystems, they have the choice now to vote with their money and not buy a closed ecosystem phone. At what point is a government unnecessarily interfering with a free market?

 

[Luis Ortega]

It isn't, though. Sideloading means bypassing the App Store and its inherent security measures, and that has wide-reaching ramifications for both Apple and iPhone owners.

So what? The law doesn't force you to side load.
If an iPhone user wants to stay within the walled garden, they are free to do so and those who want to control their phones will also be free to do so.

 

[panidemonium]

The thing is they’re really not known about. The public have no idea.

The amount of compromised devices I see in the professional fintech market that actually put people’s data and wealth at risk is scary. It has got to the point that we banned anything but iOS for company phones and tablets.

Lol.... This company you speak of needed better IT staff... Not iPhone.... Face palm

 

[I7guy]

So what? The law doesn't force you to side load.
If an iPhone user wants to stay within the walled garden, they are free to do so and those who want to control their phones will also be free to do so.

There are those that don’t want the chain reaction from “sideloading” to devolve the ecosystem. Hence there are those who don’t support sideloading. However as you noted people want options, and options are available and it’s called android.

 

[subjonas]

So what? The law doesn't force you to side load.
If an iPhone user wants to stay within the walled garden, they are free to do so and those who want to control their phones will also be free to do so.

If the App Store becomes optional, more and more companies will migrate out of the App Store to avoid Apple’s cut and tight control, leaving less and less choice for customers to stay inside the garden.

 

[darkpaw]

If it’s “their business”, why would he have a point about 50% being too much?

With your line of thinking on this, they should be able to charge any number they want, correct?

Because people want to see a return on their investment in the apps they create. A 30% or 15% cut is perfectly reasonable for everything they provide. 50% seems a bit too much. I'm a developer and I'm fine with 15%, and have been fine with 30% for the past ten years.

 

[I7guy]

Perhaps, but apple seems to be poor at arguing the legality. And that’s not the opposition’s fault for providing better legal arguments than apple to the courts.

Apple went in guilty until proven innocent.

 

[I7guy]

[…]

You will still be able to only use iOS AppStore and be as lockdown as you wish. Your security won’t be affected. And will have bigger worries about social engineering attacks to get your passwords stolen instead

The entire ecosystem will go to hell in a hand basket. It’s not about individual choice, but about the collective of the after effects.

 

[Danfango]

Lol.... This company you speak of needed better IT staff... Not iPhone.... Face palm

I'll walk into the office on Monday: Hey guys you're all fired and we're hiring new guys; a random dude on a forum said the large experienced security and global IT team we have looking after a tier 1 fintech with a 13 digit AUM is rubbish.

No. No that's definitely not happening.

 

[boyarka]

47 pages of corporate monopoly crocodile tears

 

[subjonas]

I'll walk into the office on Monday: Hey guys you're all fired and we're hiring new guys; a random dude on a forum said the large experienced security and global IT team we have looking after a tier 1 fintech with a 13 digit AUM is rubbish.

No. No that's definitely not happening.

Probably best we don’t feed the troll.

 

[vipergts2207]

If the App Store becomes optional, more and more companies will migrate out of the App Store to avoid Apple’s cut and tight control, leaving less and less choice for customers to stay inside the garden.

Is that the situation with Android?

 

[I7guy]

Is that the situation with Android?

Does android have a garden?