When they were creating the DMA, they interestingly, very specifically, left out music streaming services. Wonder why? 😀
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EU Spares Apple Maps and Apple Ads
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They don’t have an agenda other than punishing successful companies. Because, if Apple were to focus on improving Apple Maps in the EU such that the monthly usage statistics reach the gatekeeper thresholds, they’d be exposed to a lot more regulation. It’s beneficial for them for Apple Maps NOT to be successful in the EU.
The EU laws required a change in 2024. Apple made their change on their 10 year plan in 2023. Nice try rewriting that the EU forced them to do something a year AFTER they’d planned to do it 🙂
The rules, literally, punish success. It’s REALLY straightforward, even to the point where if a company has goods/services ONLY available in two EU countries, if they haven’t been successful enough to spread across the region, they are exempt from gatekeeper designation. Read the rules, man!
rizzo41999
macrumors 6502a
repoman016
macrumors 6502
What about sour gummy worms? Trolli knock offs. It's all I got 🤣
The_Gream
macrumors 6502
Hey another fun fact: Apple brought USB to iPhones a year before the EU mandate required.
Not rewriting anything, just stating facts.
The_Gream
macrumors 6502
I don’t think I have ever gotten such a large response from people on here before.
If the EU has such an issue with American tech, why did it take them so long to start supporting their own home grown stuff. Example: France dropping zoom at the government level and moving to a French based company’s product.
IMO the EU would rather regulate than invest.
So many people here hate rules, although it is rules that provide stability and more importantly predictability.
Apple Maps is not a gate-keeper like other apps, that is obvious to anyone that uses it: besides the integration with the Calendar app, it is very stand-alone. I think the bigger problem is the Contacts and Calendar apps; which of course is problematic to open up for GDPR reasons.
Apple Maps is not a gate-keeper like other apps, that is obvious to anyone that uses it: besides the integration with the Calendar app, it is very stand-alone. I think the bigger problem is the Contacts and Calendar apps; which of course is problematic to open up for GDPR reasons.
Apple Map really does suck. Ask for directions gives me the wrong address. Reported. “Needs more info.” Things not showing up. Less coverage of on the ground. They should ditch and use Google Maps, but that would require a fee. So here we are.
I like some things about it though. Pros don’t outweigh the cons.
quietstormSD
macrumors 65816
It’s not uniformly applied. Again, Apple Maps is no different then any of the other default apps on the iPhone except it is not as successful in the EU. Therefore the EU won’t punish Apple for it, like they have the other ones. Once it becomes successful the hammer will come down. They punish success.
I personally don’t care. I’m just calling them out.
Both good and bad for Apple.
Good in that the EU isn't breathing down their neck for these two things.
Bad in that their market share is likely to be pretty small there compared to Google Maps, Google and Meta ads etc.
Good in that the EU isn't breathing down their neck for these two things.
Bad in that their market share is likely to be pretty small there compared to Google Maps, Google and Meta ads etc.
Speaking as someone who lived in London for 20 years+ and who visits there every few months nowadays.
I'd say that London is fairly safe for regular people.
(Also - we don't have guns in general ownership).
I would say that the London has a safety issue for high net worth individuals who live in high net worth areas and who like wearing high net worth individual items such as very expensive watches, jewellery, handbags etc. and who keep such things in their houses (along with expensive paintings and other objects d'art).
So yeah - London is probably not the safest place to be if you are very wealthy.
So that's an issue that most of us don't have to worry about (although it's not good...)
Omega Mac
macrumors 6502a
They were fine with American (and non-EU) tech, before Vestager. Her single minded focus on achieving higher office caused her to make a LOT of bad decisions and drove others who didn’t want to be on her bad side IF that were to happen, to agree with her and pass the DMA which effectively punishes any tech company that was successful in the EU prior to the passing of the DMA. Because the EU HAS no successful tech companies, it simply punishes non-EU companies.
And dropping zoom and using to French based products is cute, I’m waiting for them to use French based mobile phones.
Or just successful enough to not get looked at. But, not like the EU wouldn't change the rules to bring them up to the level of scrutiny.
And it’s in their best interest to KEEP their market share small. Anyone in the EU wanting to know why there’s no one making a mapping product to compete with Google, it’s literally a bad business decision for anyone to do so.
Well, I guess. Also just the sheer expense of mapping the world when there are two big consumer online maps already established, with Google maps being the 'default'.
The_Gream
macrumors 6502
One thing I find so hypocritical about the EU’s anti-American tech is that a lot of the R&D happens right there in the EU.
Apple has offices all over the place. I think one report about the Siri rework mentioned Siri being handed off to their German colleagues.
How many people work for Apple (direct or contract) in the EU, not counting the store employees. I wanna assume those people are being paid a fair and reasonable wage. They should be well paid jobs.
So here is regulation that handicaps innovation, which means those big international companies do less investment in the EU and go somewhere else because those non-EU countries are not so attached to who the company is, but how the company can ‘enrich’ the people of said country. (Enrich being used loosely. I am sure some people get richer, but then you have cases like Apple’s education program that recently hit the news in regards to India. Which by the way, Apple has had a program in place to help educate people all over for many many years now).
This is nonsense.
Companies are only investigated if they abuse their dominance. If they are successful and follow the rules, they're fine. The problem is that some of the Tech Companies, once they are successful with a certain product or service, then abuse their dominance. If they do this, they will be investigated and fined if it's determined that they broke the rules.
Why is this so hard to understand? Why all this whingeing? If you break the law surely you have to take the consequences.
surferfb
macrumors 68030
This is not how it happens in the EU under the DMA. DMA requires no findings of abuse to apply.
quietstormSD
macrumors 65816
Again, I personally don't care. I'm just calling out the facts. The EU has favorites and benefits them. They punish success of certain companies while letting monopolistic abuse by others quite literally fly. We can talk about how Airbus is favored by the EU even though they have exhibited far bigger abuses using their dominance in the EU market then any other company the EU has brought down the hammer on.
The_Gream
macrumors 6502
I am pretty sure, it’s standard practice, but when one company wants to buy out another company, those companies have to get government approval.
So please tell me who approved all the big companies buying up all their competitors and/or similar services?