I’m quite happy my electric devices are compatible with the power grid in my house. Thanks mandatory interoperability.
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Apple's iMessage Avoids EU's Digital Markets Act Regulation
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Compare the costs of consumer goods, exVAT with those sold in the US to see the pricing penalty. You could include VAT and ales Tx US as that represents the government's intervention in the market to support their activities.
I'm not claiming the Eu doesn't have a free market overall, just government actions result in higher prices to support what they believe is good social policy.
Things no doubt have changed since I last lived their long term, when countries laws prevented stores from lowering prices beyond a certain point so small shops could compete or when sales could be done; which of course resulted in a higher price for the consumer.
In the App Store case, I doubt we'll see lower prices, at best developers will simply pocket the windfall from lower commissions.
I'm not saying one is better or worse, just different.
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And I’m happy my water is safe and the air that I breathe is mostly good. But I am not happy my Nintendo is so locked down.
There is no encryption built into the RCS standard. Google added that on top of the standard and there is no way apple is going to be using the google version of RCS.
Why not? Use Google's encryption and route it through their servers. What could go wrong?
Unfortunately as long as people want the devices and buy them as they are change will be slow in coming.
I know we are on the same page. Up with water regulations and down with the DMA because they picked on apple and not Nintendo. Clear bias.
Yup. RCS has never been in Apple's interest hence why they've always gone against implementing it over the years until the EU came knocking.
As you say, given there's now no real reason to implement RCS, i feel the same in that Apple will forever kick it down the road and/or back out of implementing it entirely due to some arbitrary reasoning like "security".
That's right, Universal RCS, which is what the carriers/GSMA had years ago, doesn't have e2ee built in. That's different than Google's RCS version where they built in proprietary e2ee (only via google messages to google messages). Apple has specifically stated they are working with the GSMA and using the universal RCS flavor:
"Later next year, we will be adding support for RCS Universal Profile, the standard as currently published by the GSM Association. We believe the RCS Universal Profile will offer a better interoperability experience when compared to SMS or MMS. This will work alongside iMessage, which will continue to be the best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users," said an Apple spokesperson.
Apple is a major stickler for security, IMO it would be unthinkable that they wouldn't work with the GSMA to release an e2ee version. RCS is something Apple is saying will work "alongside" iMessage. Although I haven't seen any direct quotes from Apple, I believe TechRadar and Tom's Guide both claim to have spoken to Apple reps who reiterated Apple's committemnt to work with the GSMA on security.
Thank god. It’s annoying enough the third party app stores. Eu finally did something right for once.
A little googling … 25 million + on a monthly basis. 45 million monthly is required to fall under this law. Easy to get details.
Apparently we’re not. Nintendo is not a gatekeeper. Not in number of users and not in size of the ecosystem built around its product. There’s no bias because the EU determined which companies are gatekeepers: Meta, Google, Apple … but not Nintendo.
I am a coach and if I want to reach all parents with information, I absolutely HAVE to use it. Emails don't work as well...I don't use WhatsApp. I also won't use social media apps or their messaging counterparts. If people want me they can get me on email, phone or iMessage. If that's a problem for them, that's their problem.
Noted... I've added 'Coach' to my list of past times / hobbies / careers to avoid. Honestly I'd be terrible at it anyway, as an autistic ex national swimmer. 🤣
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There it is, the word “gatekeeper”. To me it’s the definition of “threading the needle”, but that is why I believe this is an example of bias. I know nobody is changing anybody’s mind here, but at least we can discuss this.
That's very disappointing to hear, but honestly not that surprising, iMessage has never gotten a very large userbase in Europe, probably because it doesn't interoperate with Android.
What's funny is that Apple would be doing itself a favour if it did launch an Android app, a place where they could show Android users how great Apple services and software can be. However, that would also probably push it over the line into Gatekeeper territory...
Indeed, as you say, even iPhone users generally use WhatsApp as the primary messaging app due to the higher number of Android users here in Europe. I agree, attitudes might change a bit if iMessage was opened up to Android too. The group messaging semantics need vast improvement on iMessage though as its superior on WhatsApp by a country mile.
Yep, people who don’t use WhatsApp here generally don’t get included when companies, schools and parent groups set up group messages. It’s the assumed standard over every other messaging platform as not everybody uses an iPhone and certain far fewer use Telegram or Signal. Emails go astray often and missed but WhatsApp at least lets schools or the like see whether parents have received important texts.
You are reading that wrong. iMessage and RCS/SMS are two different things. Apple says "This will work alongside iMessage, which will continue to be the best and most secure messaging experience for Apple users," said an Apple spokesperson." As in iMessage only, not the fall back to RCS or SMS.
And RCS over a decade old and no one has bothered much with it until google. So while they are "committed" to work with the GSMA on security, encryption isn't coming any time soon to RCS as no one but google cares about it.
Interesting you brought this up, because John Gruber of Daringfireball posted this today.
The European Commission Had Nothing to Do With Apple’s Reversal on Supporting RCS
When the CCP says device makers must jump to sell their products in China, Apple asks “How high?”
daringfireball.net
The EU had nothing to do with RCS being implemented.
Right but he was the son of an immigrant,Steve Jobs was a Cali boy
Jobs was born in California but he’s the son of an immigrant,
Steve Jobs - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
“ . . Jobs was born in San Francisco, California, on February 24, 1955, to Joanne Carole Schieble and Abdulfattah "John" Jandali (Arabic: عبد الفتاح الجندلي). Abdulfattah Jandali was born in a Muslim household to wealthy Syrian parents.”
It's likely boils down to leverage.
The Chinese government wields absolute power, and I think Apple of all companies know better than to pull this sort of stunt in China. That said, the CCP hasn't really made Apple do anything that would compromise the App Store, much less their 30% cut, so I guess it's easy to get Apple to do something when said action doesn't cost Apple anything. If anything, it is in the CCP's best interests to ensure Apple retains full control over the App Store because then, it's easier to manage what apps are available to citizens and what apps aren't.
Likewise, iMessage is blocked in China anyways, so it's not like they have anything to lose from implementing RCS there, unlike in the US.
China is generally pretty upfront when they clearly want you doing (or not doing) something, so there's really zero ambiguity. Comply, or get out.
I suspect Tim Cook also enjoys fairly good relations with CCP officials, so any concerns he may have are likely relayed to the relevant parties behind closed doors. This sort of thing probably never gets reported in the press. It also helps that Apple and China are in somewhat of a mutually beneficial relationship, where Apple is reliant on China for a large part of their manufacturing, and China needs Apple to keep a large part of their populace meaningfully employed in order to avoid social unrest.
Meanwhile in Europe, what the EU is attempting to do is to break apart Apple's business model and expect them to give up their 30% cut. Of course Apple will protest all the way. It's also not helping that the DMA is worded in an extremely vague manner that allows Apple such a broad interpretation that they can implement it in a manner that clearly goes against what everybody here thought that Apple had to do. And till now, nobody can really say whether Apple's proposal will be accepted or not.
You want the benefits of being a democracy, you get the drawbacks of being one as well, which means having the play by the rules, and it's not helping that the rules themselves are not that clearly defined in the first place.
Are you sure about that? Then, how do you explain the existence of WeChat/Weixin and similar "super-apps" on the Chinese app store? They are essentially like a mini OS on top of iOS. We don't know the details of the business agreement between Apple and Tencent, but I highly doubt that Apple is collecting their 15/30% commission from them. An app like that would never pass Apple's review guidelines in the US or the EU.
There are other examples. Because of new regulatory requirements by the CCP a lot of western publishers had to remove their games from the Chinese app store. I bet that has cost Apple a lot of revenue from lost in-app purchases.
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