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As much as I like the ability for all these defaults. I still think the EU Commission shouldn't be dictating the UX of apps and technology

It's not about UX. A French phone operator here offers way more advanced features than the classical phone app you can find on iPhone (advanced spam filters with actual real identification of the caller - name and everything, ability to forward call on another device - keeping them active, multiple calls at the same time - not only two, call recording, call transcription, …). It has been able to provide an app for Android allowing users to replace their default phone app with their one… but not on iPhone because Apple forbids them to do so.

Another example: my wife doesn't use iCloud Photos or Google Photos but another provider. Why on earth, does she have to take a photo, look at it on the default photo app, then wait for the sync, switch the app she is actually willing to use?

Same with contacts for eg… do you guys know that as soon as you fire up your Android phone, your contact get synced to your Google Account without asking you? And even if you disable this, some time it's back on I don't know how? Isn't it stealing data from the user without his consent?

So, by allowing to replace all those default apps they try to avoid that (even if it will never be perfect).

At the end if companies don't respect user rights I think it's sometime good or necessary to make law and make them remember their duties. But I guess it's a difference of perception (or culture) between US and EU.
 
Freedom through government mandate isn't really "freedom". "Freedom" and forced action through "mandates" don't really go together.

YES IT IS REALLY FREEDOM.

To take it to a bit of an extreme, "freedom through government mandate" is why Black people can eat at any restaurant or stay at any hotel in the American South. Segregation was not going to stop on its own, it took the Civil Rights Act to force it to end.

We have the freedom to breathe cleaner air because of government mandate. We have the freedom to drink clean water because of government mandate. Business would have preferred we not have those freedoms.

There is NOTHING wrong with the government saying "Hey, you! Yes, you, business over there! You want to stay in business? Then you WILL take this consumer-positive action that gives actual humans a choice of what they want to do!"
 
It’s not a choice if you don’t have any alternatives. People who still want to use popular apps like WhatsApp or Google apps are dependent on the App store…

On Android, this is not the case. You can get almost any app outside the Play Store as well.
so perhaps buy an Android device since it does what you want...

i dont buy a car or house if it doesnt suit my requirements.
why should a phone that has existed in the current form for a decade that you know works that way need to bend to your needs?

i cant help if you made the wrong purchase...
 
so perhaps buy an Android device since it does what you want...

i dont buy a car or house if it doesnt suit my requirements.
why should a phone that has existed in the current form for a decade that you know works that way need to bend to your needs?

i cant help if you made the wrong purchase..

Ah, those people who are proud and fight tooth and nail for a moral authority that makes them believe that the absence of freedom is in their interest… seems like I have seen that in the news recently… ;-)
 
Not that I think you were saying this, but for the record, my mother-in-law is not inept. She's not technically savvy, but not inept. Case in point, she managed to set Chrome as her default browser without an EU-mandated splash screen explaining to her that she had that option 🤣
It's good that she had the option to make it the default, otherwise she might have been confused as to why the vendor mandated one kept opening instead.
 
So you'd agree there should be clubs, hotels, sport events that women are not allowed in, as long as there are other places women are allowed in?
Or places white people are allowed but not black people?

I suspect you don't think that, and think these places should be FORCED BY LAW to allow open and equal access to all, irrespective of what their owners want?

So then why should it be any different for technology companies?

Sex, race, ethnicity, etc. are protected statuses by the US Constitution, which makes it illegal to discriminate against (separate but equal was outlawed).

Supported features and functionality of consumer electronics, provided that they do no infringe upon such rights as those mentioned above, are not protected rights of U.S. citizens. We allow the free market of consumer demand to drive competition, and buy from whom we wish based on this demand, and do not rely on government to force companies to make every product exactly the same as their competition.

If Apple does the exact same thing as Android, and offers the same products with the same services and the same capabilities, then why bother having Apple vs. Android? Just create the one state-sanctioned tech company that offers the one same product and one same set of services that play by the rules dictated by government and be done with it.
 
Sex, race, ethnicity, etc. are protected statuses by the US Constitution, which makes it illegal to discriminate against (separate but equal was outlawed).

Supported features and functionality of consumer electronics, provided that they do no infringe upon such rights as those mentioned above, are not protected rights of U.S. citizens. We allow the free market of consumer demand to drive competition, and buy from whom we wish based on this demand, and do not rely on government to force companies to make every product exactly the same as their competition.

If Apple does the exact same thing as Android, and offers the same products with the same services and the same capabilities, then why bother having Apple vs. Android? Just create the one state-sanctioned tech company that offers the one same product and one same set of services that play by the rules dictated by government and be done with it.
The US Constitution is not the only source of law in the US, let alone the world. And it's not even the best way to organize a government, much of it is incredibly anti-democratic.

The "free market" doesn't exist and never has. We don't allow it to do anything, because in a world where outside of a very few truly fungible things the concept of "brand names" has been allowed to make it impossible for a "free market" to even exist at all, it is simply impossible for it to function. If you want a "free market" the entire concept of "intellectual property" would have to cease to exist. There would be no copyrights, no patents, and definitely no trademarks.

You don't want a free market. Nobody really does. There would be no iPhone, no Android, there would only be a generic "phone" made by many manufacturers, your only decision on which "phone" to purchase would be which one was the cheapest. Or maybe there wouldn't be, because without government regulation of the RF spectrum, it would be nearly impossible to have a functional radio of any kind, because anybody could use any frequency they felt like. If the US Constitution were the only source of law, the FCC wouldn't even exist because radio is not mentioned anywhere in there.

The "free market" is nonsense. It's a normal and reasonable function of government to provide consumer protection from the abusive actions of businesses like Apple and Google.

Oh, and one more thing: "Sex, race, ethnicity, etc. are protected statuses by the US Constitution" is also false. The Equal Rights Amendment never went into effect. The "separate but equal" concept was only ended on a constitutional basis as far as discrimination by public schools. The rest of the protections are NOT in the Constitution, they're in laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and subsequent laws.
 
Sex, race, ethnicity, etc. are protected statuses by the US Constitution, which makes it illegal to discriminate against (separate but equal was outlawed).

Supported features and functionality of consumer electronics, provided that they do no infringe upon such rights as those mentioned above, are not protected rights of U.S. citizens. We allow the free market of consumer demand to drive competition, and buy from whom we wish based on this demand, and do not rely on government to force companies to make every product exactly the same as their competition.

If Apple does the exact same thing as Android, and offers the same products with the same services and the same capabilities, then why bother having Apple vs. Android? Just create the one state-sanctioned tech company that offers the one same product and one same set of services that play by the rules dictated by government and be done with it.
And do you know what fundamental rights we have in EU?

Consumer protection is a right, and so is access to fundamental economic services etc etc
 
And do you know what fundamental rights we have in EU?

Consumer protection is a right, and so is access to fundamental economic services etc etc
The EU can have all of the consumer rights it wants. Don’t like a product, annoyed at the margins, CEO, liberal attitude of the company etc, don’t buy the product.

But don’t beat your own drum an pretend the DMA is anything other than a cash grab by devs who border within the EU.

Most consumer products, even some cars, have a generous return policy. Take advantage of the return policy and get the thing that works for you.
 
It's not about UX. A French phone operator here offers way more advanced features than the classical phone app you can find on iPhone (advanced spam filters with actual real identification of the caller - name and everything, ability to forward call on another device - keeping them active, multiple calls at the same time - not only two, call recording, call transcription, …). It has been able to provide an app for Android allowing users to replace their default phone app with their one… but not on iPhone because Apple forbids them to do so.

But you mean Orange?

If yes, sorry, but for me their app is complete disaster, UI, usability and stability wide. And unfortunately, to use their anti-spam on Android, I had to install whole app, even if I don't want use it for calling and it interferes with stock phone app I want to use. So finally, I dropped it, no point to waste my nerves.

But on iOS, they offer antispam only app, and I'm able to set it as default caller anti-spam app and it works flawlessly, exactly the way I want :)

So, in this particular case, Apple limitation is my gain as customer.
 
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If Apple does the exact same thing as Android, and offers the same products with the same services and the same capabilities, then why bother having Apple vs. Android? Just create the one state-sanctioned tech company that offers the one same product and one same set of services that play by the rules dictated by government and be done with it.

Who is suggesting Apple do the exact same thing as Android? Unless one feels that the only meaningful benefits or differences between iPhones and Android-based phones is its user customization restrictions and "walled garden", I don't see why lifting various iOS restrictions should make it just like Android. The iPhone hardware doesn't have meaningful benefits? The various Apple apps like Keynote, Pages, Numbers, Safari, GarageBand, FaceTime, etc. don't have meaningful benefits? Better integration between Apple devices doesn't have meaningful benefits? Nothing?
 
so perhaps buy an Android device since it does what you want...

i dont buy a car or house if it doesnt suit my requirements.
why should a phone that has existed in the current form for a decade that you know works that way need to bend to your needs?

i cant help if you made the wrong purchase...
I never said I needed to get my apps outside of the App Store, I just pointed out that the way Apple handled it is disappointing.

It's surprising how people on this forum continue to defend everything Apple does. Apple could have simply allowed sideloading without all the resistance, and everything would have been fine.

The way they've handled it feels petty and makes me dislike Apple as a company.

Also, I use an iPhone because I prefer it over an Android phone, but that doesn't mean I'm in favor of keeping everything exactly as it is. ;)

Besides, I’ve invested a lot of money into the Apple ecosystem and don’t want to switch just like that. However, if Apple continues with its anti-consumer behavior, I will certainly reconsider my choice for my next smartphone.
 
The EU can have all of the consumer rights it wants. Don’t like a product, annoyed at the margins, CEO, liberal attitude of the company etc, don’t buy the product.

But don’t beat your own drum an pretend the DMA is anything other than a cash grab by devs who border within the EU.
First being a single shred of evidence for this. The cash grab you talk about is equally possible for 100% of developers irrespective of they are EU or U.S. developers.

You as a company doesn’t have a right to sell whatever you want however you want.
Most consumer products, even some cars, have a generous return policy. Take advantage of the return policy and get the thing that works for you.
Nope, goods having a generous return policy isn’t respected or legaly required to do so by the store selling the goods.

Example if I buy an iPhone or a KIA from some store they won’t need to respect by wish to return it and just say no.

The store puts the policy.
 
It's surprising how people on this forum continue to defend everything Apple does. Apple could have simply allowed sideloading without all the resistance, and everything would have been fine.
FWIW, as someone who is very critical of the DMA, I think Apple is definitely shares a lot of blame here. While I am against the government forcing Apple to open up, I do wish they had decided to do so on their own accord (although they have legitimate reasons to not want to do so - and not just the monetary aspect). And I am vehemently against some of Apple's anti-steering restrictions (I think developers should be able to disclose cheaper prices inside of their app). They definitely made it worse for themselves.

Mind you, I still think the EU would have come in and regulated something similar, if not exactly the same, but it would have exposed the EU's regulations for what they are, not what they claim to be.
 
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I can only see this as a positive change and one that will quickly spread beyond the EU as other countries, and iPhone users within them, ask "Why can't we have this?".

I see it ending with a MacOS-like experience. No reason iOS can't remain as secure as MacOS.

And hopefully it will push Apple to improve their own apps. I'd be delighted if the best app for every option was an Apple one but unfortunately it isn't.

It's my phone. Let me decide.
So you will delete all Apple apps from the phone.
And download/install other choices.
And when you will get malware installed, you will blame Apple, right?
 
Born too late to explore the seas, born too early to explore the stars, born just in time to... change the default messaging app on my phone thanks to government intervention?

What a time to be alive. :apple:
Yeah but... what does it do? It doesn't say SMS, it says "Messaging"
 
No. It's for businesses and end users. Literally written by the EU people: "Consumers will have more and better services to choose from, more opportunities to switch their provider if they wish so, direct access to services, and fairer prices."
e.g. "Businesses will have a market to sell through and capitalism will again work"
 
So you will delete all Apple apps from the phone.
And download/install other choices.
And when you will get malware installed, you will blame Apple, right?
„Delete all Apple apps“… why should he do that?
It’s just about choice and approved apps from the App Store aren’t malware.
 
First being a single shred of evidence for this.
Don’t require evidence of an opinion — of which if the shoe fits.
The cash grab you talk about is equally possible for 100% of developers irrespective of they are EU or U.S. developers.

You as a company doesn’t have a right to sell whatever you want however you want.
100% you do, provide the “whatever” is within the regulatory framework. there are thousands upon thousands of “whatever’s” that are perfectly legal to sell. Notice I said legal.
Nope, goods having a generous return policy isn’t respected or legaly required to do so by the store selling the goods.
Maybe not required but nonetheless it is there. More evidence though of the sinister intent of the DMA.
Example if I buy an iPhone or a KIA from some store they won’t need to respect by wish to return it and just say no.

The store puts the policy.
Keep saying the DMA isn’t a cash grab but a consumer landmark decision, neither of which seems to fit.
 
That law is actually not written for end users in mind. It's called a Digital MARKETS Act for a reason. The intention is to level the playground for businesses.
Businesses can start selling their own phone with what ever apps they want.
no one is stopping them from doing it.
i thought this was supposed to protect consumers.
 
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