This is... not a good thing. Like many here, you're serving Apple's interests by taking this stance.
It's the "don't like x? use y" argument except there are special circumstances that make this an exception
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Apple Gets EU Warning to Open iOS to Third-Party Connected Devices
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It's the "don't like x? use y" argument except there are special circumstances that make this an exception
Notice how the pro-apple side keeps bringing up this word.
Innovation has to have mass practical use, not serve as profits for Apple with maybe a bit of real life applicability.
The average consumer doesn't give two ***** about this, either. This isn't 2012 anymore - everyone knows companies copy each other all the time.
Rather, the EU is doing what the US would have done if the latter had no homegrown tech giants to call their own.
I guess it’s a chicken and egg issue as to whether the tech regulatory environment in the EU is in response to the purported problems caused by these tech giants, or the reason the EU doesn’t have any real tech giants of their own (maybe Spotify, and even that is only recently profitable, and still on the hook for a large amount of debt). Blaming Apple only absolves Spotify of so much blame over what was an unsustainable business model when they no longer pay iOS or android anything, their rates are lower than Apple’s, and they love to drag their feet on supporting new iOS APIs.
And yet Spotify has somehow become the poster child of how Apple is a big bully and they need to be “protected” when the reality is that theirs simply wasn’t a viable business to begin with.
There is good in bad, just as there is bad in good. The more lax attitude of the US towards tech innovation in general is why we have the Apple ecosystem, Amazon shopping and Google search. I do use them a fair bit, and it can be argued that the problems are inexorably intertwined with what made them so popular with users in the first place.
For example, compared to what developers would have you believe, I don’t think that users really dislike closed walled ecosystems.
In contrast, I suppose I have the EU to thank for the numerous cookie banners I encounter when browsing the web, and why I need to twist my bottle cap extra hard to dislodge it.
That’s the issue I feel. Rules like the DMA may set a floor on how low technology can sink, but they will never rise above it either.
I’m just going to say it. The European Commission needs to go take a long walk off a short pier and leave Apple the heck alone. They need to realize they don’t have unfettered power. I’d rather Apple give them the middle finger and stop selling in the EU than kowtow to them again. Do they realize how much revenue Apple brings into the EU? Apparently not.
Spotify is the reason because DMA arrived; when a$$le decided to start with a streaming service, the competition between it and Spotify was unfair...
And yes, you have to thank EU for the cookie banners; do you believe that cookies arrived due to EU? No, you have the banner because they are FORCED to show you how many cookies they are using to track you. If you browse a website that won't track you, there is no banner...
You are right, because many are saying "don't like x? use y" because they like x. I would see how they would react in another scenario when they "don't like x".
I'm typing this from an Android phone, but you keep mentioning the free market and how it is working.
Apple and Google are the mob bosses of the smartphone market. They didn't become a duopoly just by providing (subjectively) better products but also by ruthlessly sabotaging the competition and using their dominant position to invade other markets.
Yeah, that didn’t happen, but whatever helps you sleep at night
It’s no different than Microsoft being forced to allow 3rd parties to have the same level of access to the kernel in windows eg. Crowdstrike because Microsoft has their own security tools that have kernel access. All courtesy of the EU attempts to address Microsoft monopolistic behavior.
No one is talking about the physical smartphone market, if they were Samsung would be a gatekeeper and not google, who is responsible for android
What digital services does Spotify prevent you from using at the same functionality of Spotify
But Apple’s smartphone market share equals their OS share in smartphones. So sure, fine. OS, not smartphone.
What digital services does YouTube prevent you from using at the same functionality of YouTube? Because YouTube is a gatekeeper.
This is based on the operating system not something that is played in any web browser
The world’s reaction to the GDPR regulations says otherwise. Due to the size of the market global companies will operate in a way to be in compliance globally
YouTube is a gatekeeper under the DMA. Read the legislation. It is about more than OSes. Why isn’t Spotify? Because the E.U. intention excluded them.
I am curious, how many posters angry with EU are AAPL shareholders? We know some are. Of course they are interested in Apple being a monopoly and not so much in the customer benefits.
I for one, own zero individual stocks. I do own total market index funds, which of course include Apple (along with every other stock in the market)
A$$le rakes it in due to the customers. Some of those customers are $hareholders. If it takes a revolt to stop the insanity I’m for it.
But should you really be legally able to play these games? I don’t think Apple really cares about emulators. What they probably did care about is facilitating the dubious use of them by allowing copyrighted Roms to be used. They also didn’t want any Trojan horse OS sitting on top of their OS. Which is pretty reasonable if they want iOS to survive and not be marginalised by meta/epic etc
Just like the EUgo Union.
You agree to one thing and the camel has its nose under the tent flap.
More, More, More.
Perhaps they should license g
You agree to one thing and the camel has its nose under the tent flap.
More, More, More.
Perhaps they should license g
Well, you could just buy Android phones. That would really fix Apple. …..door…..hit……out.
Apparently after you take away the UK Apple only have 26% of the EU market for handsets.
So the EU couldn’t use the monopoly justification but invented the “gatekeeper” ruling. Which is their arbitrary assessment of what having dominance is.
Notice that Spotify isn’t considered a “gatekeeper” even though it has 60%+ of the streaming market. There doesn’t seem to be any EU company that is designated a gatekeeper in the tech space.
I just think that the EU thinks Apples business model should be like Microsoft’s or Google. You sell an OS and let other third parties / OEM’s make money from that. Whereas apples business model has always been exclusive integrated services providing a unique advantage to those who buy into it.
So, can the EU determine a private companies business model? If Apple keeps going in the EU’s direction it will remove their competitive advantage as they would have to support all third party products as well as their own. For example, could Apple release another version of Vision Pro in the EU without making sure third party VR sets work with their OS?
It’s kind of crazy what the EU are going for here. Mainly because no customers have asked for this. Only other businesses that want to make money off apples systems.
But the EU are pretending that allowing third parties to make money off apples will improve the lives of EU customers. When the very fact that Apple has been successful actually points to the opposite. Integrated, opinionated systems are easier to use and thus better for customers who are willing to pay a premium for that approach.
In short, this is an EU shakedown that has very little to do with helping its citizens and more to do with enriching its companies that have failed in the tech sector.
So the EU couldn’t use the monopoly justification but invented the “gatekeeper” ruling. Which is their arbitrary assessment of what having dominance is.
Notice that Spotify isn’t considered a “gatekeeper” even though it has 60%+ of the streaming market. There doesn’t seem to be any EU company that is designated a gatekeeper in the tech space.
I just think that the EU thinks Apples business model should be like Microsoft’s or Google. You sell an OS and let other third parties / OEM’s make money from that. Whereas apples business model has always been exclusive integrated services providing a unique advantage to those who buy into it.
So, can the EU determine a private companies business model? If Apple keeps going in the EU’s direction it will remove their competitive advantage as they would have to support all third party products as well as their own. For example, could Apple release another version of Vision Pro in the EU without making sure third party VR sets work with their OS?
It’s kind of crazy what the EU are going for here. Mainly because no customers have asked for this. Only other businesses that want to make money off apples systems.
But the EU are pretending that allowing third parties to make money off apples will improve the lives of EU customers. When the very fact that Apple has been successful actually points to the opposite. Integrated, opinionated systems are easier to use and thus better for customers who are willing to pay a premium for that approach.
In short, this is an EU shakedown that has very little to do with helping its citizens and more to do with enriching its companies that have failed in the tech sector.
It could just as easily be said the EU is acting like an overbearing parent. Most people and companies around the world adhere to laws based on the wording and letter. The EU's ever-shifting "spirit of the law" as a basis to target and fine any company is just wrong. Why would any company willingly bring new features into that market without assurances that it fits the "spirit of the day". And what happens when next week it is decided that the sprit of the law is really shifted a bit from what was assured to be acceptable. It has already happened several times since DMA went into affect.
All bets are off on what happens next with Margrethe Vestager taking over after Thierry Breton resigned.