Let's get this clear: the EU is not preventing Apple from implementing iPhone mirroring on a Mac ... rather, Apple has decided not to offer this feature in the EU. Stop blaming the EU, it's Apple who are to blame.
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Apple Explains Why iPhone Mirroring Remains Unavailable in the EU on macOS Tahoe
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The way the law is written, if Apple offers a feature, it has to give that same access to anyone who asks. That would mean handing third parties the ability to have full remote control over your phone from a computer: a massive security and privacy nightmare.
Imagine the EU passed a law saying if hotels give free breakfast to its guests, they have to give free breakfast to anyone who walks in off the street. When hotel stops offering free breakfast altogether, you wouldn't blame the hotels. You'd blame the law that made it impossible to do what is best for their customers, even if technically the hotels could still offer free breakfast.
Nobody is forcing you to install such third party software on your iPhone or Mac. Nobody is handing over control of your iPhone or mine to a third party. We still control what third party software we install on our iPhones.
The problem isn’t that you’re “forced” to install anything; it’s that the law compels Apple to hand over the same deep system access (their own IP), to any third party who asks, without compensation, even if that third party is using Apple’s property in ways Apple believes harm its customers.
Imagine the EU forced Mercedes to hand over its self-driving software code to any garage that asked, for free, even if that garage wanted to modify it in ways Mercedes believed were unsafe. When Mercedes decides not to ship self-driving in Europe at all, you don’t blame Mercedes. You blame the law that made it impossible to protect both its IP and its customers.
The DMA is absurd regulatory overreach. Literally any iOS feature Apple offers has to be given to competitors for free. Apple is not allowed to use features to differentiate itself. The EU should be embarrassed for passing a law that undermines basic property rights like that.
So yes, it is the EU’s fault the feature isn’t offered in the EU. Not Apple’s. And the real losers are EU users, who miss out on features because regulators think trampling on property rights is ok.
I guess we disagree.
Apple is scared of competition and prevents others innovating (something Apple itself has stopped doing). Why should I not be able to view my iPhone or Android phone on a Mac, or a Windows machine, or a Linux machine through the development of third party SW? Why can't these devices all talk to each other? They do for many tasks, for example, I can send an email from a Mac to a Windows machine ... indeed, imagine if that were NOT possible!!!
Yep we do.
I couldn’t disagree more strongly with the idea that Apple is scared of competition or that has Apple has stopped innovating. I think they have a different risk profile than most tech enthusiasts posting on technology forums, and that Apple’s risk profile makes sense considering the vast, vast majority of iOS’ 1-2 billion users aren’t sophisticated tech enthusiasts.
Because continuity and handoff are proprietary technologies baked into a proprietary (and not open source) operating system, which at the same time is developed by a company whose business model is a tight integration between their devices, facilitated by a vertical integration of hardware and software.
We can agree on tech standards, such as email, allowing RCS in messages or adopting a standard port such as USB-C. However, this iPhone mirroring feature is not a standard, it’s part of continuity/handoff, a series of features aimed exclusively at their hardware, to make their integration even better. And that tight integration is one of the several keys of Apple’s competitiveness. The so called ecosystem.
I understand, but Apple fought tooth and nail to NOT implement RCS, and similarly fought the USB-C port as though it were the end of the World! They oppose anything that might allow competition, particularly third party developers, to do anything innovative or anything that might make their devices more useful and usable for more users.
I repeat, why should I not be able to link my iPhone to my Windows or Linux computer in the same way it can link to a Mac?
Let's not kid ourselves that there is any genuine technical or legal reason why this feature is not being offered in the EU. It's not being offered because Apple wants to apply pressure on the EU to water down the DMA and it figures this feature is important enough to do that, but not so important that it will harm its sales. That's really the end of the story.
If the feature was launched in the EU could the EU force Apple to allow others to use it? Possibly, although I would suggest it seems pretty improbable, but Apple could withdraw the feature at that point.
If the feature was launched in the EU could the EU force Apple to allow others to use it? Possibly, although I would suggest it seems pretty improbable, but Apple could withdraw the feature at that point.
Nope, here is the legal reason:
In other words, if Apple offers it, they have to give it to Meta or Google or whoever else randomly asks for it. I think it’s abundantly clear why those two companies in particular, and random others, full and complete access to a user’s locked iPhone is a terrible idea.
They literally already force Apple to allow others to use any iOS feature. See the text of the DMA I quoted above.