EU Chief Calls on Apple CEO Tim Cook to Open Hardware and Software Ecosystem

[mcnallym]

Apple is far from perfect, however there are alternatives to Apple if the consumer doesn’t like the closed Apple EcoSystem.

if people don’t like Apple EcoSystem then don’t buy Apple products.

Don’t however buy Apple Products then moan that they are not Android Phones or Wintel PC’s.

iPhone is not a seperate market to Android same as Mac is not a seperate market to Wintel PC’s.

currently have

Apple Wireless Keyboard
Apple Wireless Mouse
Apple Trackpad
Apple AirPods Pro
Apple TV Remote
Apple iPad Pro
Apple iPhone SE

with one charger that use for them all.

now thanks to EU when I replace the iPhone will also likely end up replacing the Airpod Pro as well too save carrying two chargers, and retain the existing charger for the keyboard, mouse, trackpad and remote.

 

[MacLawyer]

can’t wait to see everyone mentally contort themselves to defend billion dollar tech companies and think that’s normal in the comments 🍿

Why generalize and attack your fellow users in the comments?

 

[Madonepro]

I would also like the EU, to force Apple to sell their M2, M3, ... chips to other suppliers, so that we can get home servers and other power efficient computers.

That's ridiculous, that's like asking the USA to sell their fighter jets to Luxembourg because they are in the EU.

 

[DeepWebinar]

I think people are defending the user experience more so than defending billion dollar tech companies. Do you want your iPhone experience to be like Android? What a disaster that would be. Most people use Apple products because of the whole ecosystem and the (mostly) seamless user experience.

i don’t care about their reasons, it’s still odd behavior. imagine what user experiences apple and google have crushed with their duopolistic hold on the market.

It isn't about how much Apple is worth. Any business should be able to run how it wants. Let the free market decide if they are succesful or not. Telling a company they can't prioritize their own products over competitors has to be about the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life.

dumber than let the free market decide?

 

[sparkinstx]

What is preventing an EU company from launching a browser?

Nothing

They would, but then the EU would regulate it out of existence.

 

[Falhófnir]

Many people here only think in (space) black and white.

Regulations can be very useful and help with progress. In the EU I can use the internet provider I like because the cable owners must let others companies use the cables for rent.

While I agree that apple should profit from its inventions, that doesn’t mean that it should be able to abuse a monopoly.

I should be able to use other services without being hindered by Apple.
Why can’t I use GeForce Now properly on my iPad for example?

In what way is Apple a monopoly? It has stiff competition in every area of business it operates in, and even where it is particularly successful (mobile phones) it only just manages to be a plurality market share in a small handful of EU countries, nowhere does it have a majority share at all. The EU is massively overreaching with this.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Thanks for the constant cookie consent warnings EU bureaucrats, F U very much!

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[fhall1]

What is "free" about not being able to do what you want with your own very expensive phone? Imagine you buy a car, but the car company also owns gas stations and only allows you to use their own gas stations. Would that be your idea or free market?

That is a bad analogy

 

[Kirkster]

Just build your EU phone and leave us alone. Apple is not a monopoly it just makes its own environment, if you don’t like it build your own.

 

[magicschoolbus]

Europe: Please open your eco system up to our businesses.

 

[bmustaf]

One of the most underrated comments here. Complex societies and economies rarely work when we focus or live on the extrema. That's an issue we are struggling with the US especially: if you're in the center you're not polarizing enough to gain support from either fringe, and the fringe of each side seems to dominate now that our elections because our electoral districts are so manipulated that they give vastly disproportionate power to these fringes...of course, the maps were drawn to do exactly this because the fringes (right or left, does not matter, extremism is the same in its fervent monotheism regardless) are easily manipulated by the same funders/interests who funded the districting.

We have made our government an extension of industry here, it does its bidding and stacks the deck in favor of majority shareholders and the market makers, but our fringe on the right is easily fooled enough that they have "freedom" because they have ready and open access to firearms, when, in reality, we're all living under tyranny of a system that disproportionately uses our tax dollars to further drive profits for market makers rather than actual public good.

At least there is some consumer-focused work still being done in the EU. If it wasn't for our friends in the EU markets and environmental areas of law/legislation, we wouldn't have USB-C and the gamut of cool features it's already driving on the iPhone, and would still be transferring videos and data at USB 2 speeds.

I don't at all like government intervention. I don't at all like private industry that refuses to innovate to protect a walled garden, either.

Both can be bad for consumers and stifle innovation, and an optimal balance of both is the only kind of economy I believe truly works for consumers: where private industry/profit motive can be the driver it is to elicit enormous innovation and government programs can undertake loss-making moonshots (literally and figuratively) until they can spur economically viable industries (you're welcome private industry for things that have come out of such programs that had no private industry shot for the first 40 years like things that came out of space travel, internet development, cellular technology, insane chemistry and materials sciences, etc).

Many people here only think in (space) black and white.

Regulations can be very useful and help with progress. In the EU I can use the internet provider I like because the cable owners must let others companies use the cables for rent.

While I agree that apple should profit from its inventions, that doesn’t mean that it should be able to abuse a monopoly.

I should be able to use other services without being hindered by Apple.
Why can’t I use GeForce Now properly on my iPad for example?

 

[TheOldChevy]

As long as I get all SW that I need from the App store, I don't care if they open other (less secure ?) stores. If the result is that I need to manage several stores to get my apps, then I will be unhappy.

 

[magicschoolbus]

Just build your EU phone and leave us alone. Apple is not a monopoly it just makes its own environment, if you don’t like it build your own.

What a disaster that would be. China and USA out innovate Europe by a huge scale.

 

[nicolas_s]

What is preventing an EU company from launching a browser?

Nothing

We'd like to, but regulation would make it impossible for the company to survive more than a few years.

The same reason why there isn't any European social network, no company here can afford fighting for years with the regulators, only US mega corps with billions to spend can afford it.

 

[wanha]

Apple, just leave. They're going to keep this BS up until it isn't worth your time to be there. Cut it off now and be done with their insane BS.

There's always - ALWAYS - one guy 😆

 

[mcnallym]

It is not really a free market, if you can just choose between iOS and Android. And Google even pays billions to Apple.

What is "free" about not being able to do what you want with your own very expensive phone? Imagine you buy a car, but the car company also owns gas stations and only allows you to use their own gas stations. Would that be your idea or free market?

I would buy a car from another car company that allows me to use whichever petrol station I want. Other cars are available for sale So yes would be a free market as could buy a competing car, in the same way if don’t like Apple iPhone then can buy an Android Phone.

google pays Apple to be the search engine of choice on the iOS platform, not for anything to do with Android.

however I wouldn’t buy the car (or product X) then moan about its limitations knowing about them before I bought it.

 

[3xBoom]

Apple should just buy Europe and fire all idiots on the spot.

 

[TheOldChevy]

😱😱😱

Last time Apple licensed its hardware the company almost died (1995-1997). Learn from history.

Only an idiot of the highest order would pee on the electric fence twice.😤

Nobody is asking for that

But one may want to be able to make peripherals that operate reliably without having to go through the (expensive) Apple compatibility suite, or correctly repair iPhones without having to pay an Apple tax for unnecessarily special tools or pairing.

 

[Jamie0003]

Guys I have a top secret transcript of this meeting, left behind by Tim Cook in a bar, here we go:

Apple: Lolno

 

[duffman9000]

It is not really a free market, if you can just choose between iOS and Android. And Google even pays billions to Apple.

What is "free" about not being able to do what you want with your own very expensive phone? Imagine you buy a car, but the car company also owns gas stations and only allows you to use their own gas stations. Would that be your idea or free market?

This be free to do what you want falls apart because you are free to do whatever you want with your phone. Apple is not obliged to help you. There is a world of difference.

 

[cocky jeremy]

There's always - ALWAYS - one guy 😆

I guarantee you if Microsoft, Apple, and Google left they would quit and beg them to come back.

 

[djphat2000]

Tim, tell the EU to kick rocks wearing flip flops. 🤌
Straight up. EU, enjoy your Android ONLY devices. Time to give them what they want.

 

[alchemistmuffin]

Breton went on to be critical of Apple's argument that security and privacy are the reasons it protects its closed ecosystem. "EU regulation fosters innovation, without compromising on security and privacy," Breton added.

If Steve Jobs was still alive and heard that as argument to why Apple should open their hardware and software back up, he would’ve likely punched that person in the mouth.

Steve Jobs killed the Macintosh clone program for reason. And it helped Apple experience its renaissance.

If Apple was forced to open up both hardware and software, they would rather pull out of EU market entirely. (And they can afford to, they got Asia and the Americas which is alone enough to still cover its cash needs. And Apple board would likely approve the move if necessary)

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

can’t wait to see everyone mentally contort themselves to defend billion dollar tech companies and think that’s normal in the comments 🍿

you're on the right site xd

 

[SactoGuy18]

Apple will likely open up iOS to support multiple app stores under a singular security standard. And maybe allow certified third party apps to use the NFC functionality. Everything else is off the table for now.