EU Takes Credit for Apple and Google's Upcoming iPhone-Android Data Transfer Tools

[whatnot]

Not to get stuck on this, but those fines are billions. That would some half-assed planning if they didn't have any idea of how many fines they expect. Just like states, cities, counties budget around some figure of expected fines from things like speeding and such, I bet EU has a planned figure for how many fines they expect to receive annually.

Like you say, it's a part of the budget. If they don't fine anyone, they'd have to decrease their salaries or contributions to countries or increase income elsewhere, so that creates an incentive throw fines around. Even for silly things like blue checkmarks.

so EU projects its budget based on fines it can collect? that's some fanciful nonsense.

 

[votdfak]

The world would be better off if the EU went the way of the dodo. The EU is stifling economic growth and the European Commission’s “solution” is to try to export its regulatory regime worldwide to bring everyone else down to their level.

Alternative to EU is all out war. So live long EU! Better to have no borders between France and Germany vs them fighting again. Some of you people are really different. Greed is not good.

 

[ForkHandles]

I live in the EU, and the EU doesn't have any major tech companies. Therefore, it's probably true, considering they did billions worth of fines for Google, Apple, Meta, etc. Anyone who thinks that fines weren't part of the reason for the new laws is naive. They knew they can cash in. The EU urgently needs new sources of revenue now that their economy is shrinking.

It depends how you define major!

Arm Holdings was once an EU company, over time they chose to list on the Nasdaq for greater investment, not skills.

There are loads of EU tech companies out there, they are in fact quite sizeable. Eu investors are perhaps more risk averse than Americans.

As others have stated, fines minus costs of legal actions provide an insignificant level of funding for the eu.

 

[artifex]

The EU argued for this to prevent 'lock-in'.

I wonder what real effect it will have on the marketplace. Transferring from one device to another is not the issue - it's the walled gardens around their device ecosystems (e.g. purchased Apps, device exclusives, Apple Music/Google Play etc.) that creates the real barrier to switching.

I'm not saying it is a bad thing, it's just I don't think it will change consumer options in any meaningful way.

I'm in both ecosystems, and the only thing I've actually wanted to copy has been things like keychains. But I always do fresh installs on every new device instead of transferring app caches, even within the same ecosystem. Thankfully, any of my apps that have subscriptions attached have them through external purchases, so I'm not locked into either app store, which this would do nothing to fix.

 

[MilaM]

Wow, I never knew that a TV or playstation had to be charged regurlarly!

They don't need to be charged, but TVs and Playstations can charge other devices like your controller/headphones/smartphone, all using the same cable. And you can use the same connector to hook up your MacBook to the TV. I think that's quite neat, when you think about it.

 

[theluggage]

Arm Holdings was once an EU company, over time they chose to list on the Nasdaq for greater investment, not skills.

ARM Holdings was a UK company until it was sold to Japan's Softbank shortly after the UK voted to leave the EU. That timing may have been coincidental (although it probably helped pull down the price) - but it was the Brexit-obsessed UK government that failed to lift a finger to keep it.

I live in the EU, and the EU doesn't have any major tech companies.

Any? That's easy to refute:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASML_Holding

 

[Kidseeghost]

The EU has several major tech companies. The premise on which you built that strawman is flawed beyond belief.

They don’t and the ones they have can not even compete with the US and China tech giants. Only think left in the EU is tourism economy and and the car industry.

 

[MilaM]

I read somewhere that EU fines against US tech companies are higher than their total tax revenue of their own tech companies. Perhaps that's the main reason for this bloated bureaucracy. That's the state of the EU. And it's only going to get worse.

The EU is not as "bloated" as many think. EU institutions only employ around 80 thousand people directly. This might sound like a lot, until you compare it to the U.S. Federal Government, which has 2.9 Million employees for a much smaller population.

 

[MilaM]

They don’t and the ones they have can not even compete with the US and China tech giants. Only think left in the EU is tourism economy and and the car industry.

It's not that bad. The EU has leading companies in chemicals, pharma, optics, airplanes, mechanical engineering, machine industry, fashion, luxury goods, medical equipment (probably missed some sectors). Yes, IT, advertising and entertainment is dominated by the US. But Europe also makes some valuable things.

 

[goonie4life9]

Google initiated Android to Mac transfer software back in 2013, with Android File Transfer App, to state the EU took the initiate with iOS - Android, is somewhat misleading.As there has been for a number of years, work by both platforms, to allow for users of one system, to buy the other's device and easily transfer their data. Ultimately what this will do, will be to stop the two major phone os's fighting over new users, and allow an easy transition.
You had to be around in the early 2000's, trying to move outlook pst's to a Mac, to appreciate how easy it is these days.

I'm not really sure what you're arguing with here. My post was a lampoon of what the EU said. You had to be around in the late 90s, to appreciate this kind of word spin.

 

[jimbobb24]

As crazy as it seems you're probably right. I'll never forget how disgusted Joz looked when he said "we'll obviously have to comply" in response to the question about switching to USB-C.

What's disgusting is how long it took them to do something so obviously beneficial to everyone but them.

It didn't benefit me. Still prefer lightning to the fragile tongue of USBC. Had to buy a bunch of new chargers. No one who wasn't on tech forums cared one way to the other.

 

[weckart]

They don’t and the ones they have can not even compete with the US and China tech giants. Only think left in the EU is tourism economy and and the car industry.

I think you need to educate yourself. Apple itself relies on EU tech, without which it would be just another PC box builder. This is woeful ignorance on your part.

 

[BuffaloTF]

And rightfully so.

Less barriers are always beneficial for customers. Otherwise, we'd still be using Lightning instead of USB-C.

I’m not so sure we would be. The beating they took on dropping the 30-pin with all the accessories losing their function, needing to be replaced with Lightning, they promised it was a cable for the next decade. Well… they made it that 10 years and then got to drop it and have someone to point a finger at for doing so. I guess what I’m saying is I think it was coming anyway.

 

[dumastudetto]

Just EU do you think EU are?

 

[JPack]

I’m not so sure we would be. The beating they took on dropping the 30-pin with all the accessories losing their function, needing to be replaced with Lightning, they promised it was a cable for the next decade. Well… they made it that 10 years and then got to drop it and have someone to point a finger at for doing so. I guess what I’m saying is I think it was coming anyway.

If it was planned, then the Wall Street Journal interview with Joswiak wouldn't be so full of contempt about USB-C.

There is a 5-year gap between iPad Pro (2018) with USB-C and iPhone 15/Pro with USB-C. There was no way it was planned that way. In all likelihood, USB-C was intended as a reserved "Pro" feature. But the EU put a stop to those plans.

Apple is still trying to fight back through feature rationing: USB 2 vs USB 3.

 

[carestudio]

and both Apple and Google did all the hardworks. EU just took credit for it lol

 

[CarAnalogy]

It didn't benefit me. Still prefer lightning to the fragile tongue of USBC. Had to buy a bunch of new chargers. No one who wasn't on tech forums cared one way to the other.

I have never seen a single USB connector broken, only theoretical complaints about it on tech forums. T

hose new chargers were likely necessary or at least highly beneficial as newer devices use more power than USB-A was designed for.

It has benefitted me immensely in my actual real life as now I just plug my 17 Pro Max into my laptop charger for like 45 minutes and it's done, without having to go to or get out my specific cell phone charger like it's the mid 2000s.

 

[CarAnalogy]

the rare triple post error

 

[CarAnalogy]

apparently the first post went through after all

 

[surferfb]

The law mandates a future revision of the norm, which is focused more on having a uniform charger for all device, like mandating at the beginning CCS2 everywhere avoided us all the NACS2CCS1 and vice versa that you ahve in the US.

There isn’t going to be a future better connector to revise to; what company is going to spend tens to hundreds of millions of dollars to design a new port that can’t be used in the EU? Probably Apple is the only one that would consider it, and then half of the tech internet will attack Apple for daring to suggest they know better than bureaucrats in Brussels who thought trying to make everyone use Micro-USB two years after Lightning was released was a good idea.

But even if Apple announced a new amazing port today, gave the design to anyone who wanted to use it for free, and everyone agreed it was way better and worth transitioning to - it still wouldn’t make it onto phones in the EU until 2030 at the earliest.

• 2–3 years for adoption outside the EU. (EU won't transition to a different port unless it's widely used globally). Once there is enough momentum to revise the standard we get:
• 2–3 years for EU regulatory + political review. Even the EU agrees! Yay. Now it's approved to be put on phones in sold in the EU, and we have to wait for:
• 1–2 years for industry transition.

Again, I’m a big fan of USB-C and am glad it's on the iPhone, but codifying it into law did nothing other than making it harder for a better port to emerge (and maybe pushing Apple's transition on iPhone forward by a year or two). When the EU tried to make Micro-USB mandatory, their argument was that it was unlikely that a better connector would come out. Look how wrong they were. But now they're definitely right that USB-C is "good enough" and it's unlikely that a port will get better? It couldn't be thinner, or faster? Ports are the one thing in tech that can't get better? We think government bureaucrats know better than hardware engineers working on state-of-the-art projects?

If Apple hadn't pushed back hard on the EU's initial attempt to standardize we'd probably all be using Micro-USB phones today. And still a lot of MacRumors posters know that and go “yes, I think the government mandating a charger connector makes sense.”

Personally, I'd rather it be tech companies deciding what is "good enough" than the EU.

 

[Abazigal]

Can the EU pass a mandate requiring usb-c ports in Televisions next? Perplexing how they can come with 4 HDMI ports, but lord forbid that I be able to hook up my Nintendo Switch to it with a single cable. I mean, if they are going to dictate the design and how tech is implemented, may as well go all the way, no?

 

[SFjohn]

Please explain why we would need a better port? What is missing from USB-C?

Thinness is missing. It’s a relatively thick port that takes up space where a battery could expand into. Lightening was thinner & took up less space. It will very likely delay anything better being made for the foreseeable future. It’s like the EU decided that USB A was to be universal. We’d never have seen USB C. You won’t see what’s next, because it’s not universally accepted anymore. You seem happy with USB C which is great, because it will likely be the last power plug ever made for small devices for the next century or two. Fan ****ing tastic! 🤯

 

[KPOM]

And rightfully so.

Less barriers are always beneficial for customers. Otherwise, we'd still be using Lightning instead of USB-C.

USB-C wouldn’t exist but for Lightning. The EU wanted to standardize on micro-USB.

Please explain why we would need a better port? What is missing from USB-C?

And 640K should be enough RAM for anyone.

Please explain why we would need a better port? What is missing from USB-C?

It’s more difficult to make waterproof. There is no way to differentiate ordinary USB-C from Thunderbolt. It requires physical insertion of a plug into a port.

If I were to design an “ideal” port it would be mag-safe, completely closed, and the size of a pinhead. It’s technologically feasible but no one has an incentive to develop it now.

Remember the EU previously tried to force everyone to standardize on the awful micro-USB port. Apple and others successfully pushed back on that idea.

 

[tonmischa]

If Apple hadn't pushed back hard on the EU's initial attempt to standardize we'd probably all be using Micro-USB phones today.

Thinness is missing. It’s a relatively thick port that takes up space where a battery could expand into.

If I were to design an “ideal” port it would be mag-safe, completely closed, and the size of a pinhead. It’s technologically feasible but no one has an incentive to develop it now.

You all are right.

I obviously failed to convey my sarcasm in my original post. Sorry about that.

 

[JustSomebody12]

There isn’t going to be a future better connector to revise to; what company is going to spend tens to hundreds of millions of dollars to design a new port that can’t be used in the EU? Probably Apple is the only one that would consider it, and then half of the tech internet will attack Apple for daring to suggest they know better than bureaucrats in Brussels who thought trying to make everyone use Micro-USB two years after Lightning was released was a good idea.

But even if Apple announced a new amazing port today, gave the design to anyone who wanted to use it for free, and everyone agreed it was way better and worth transitioning to - it still wouldn’t make it onto phones in the EU until 2030 at the earliest.

• 2–3 years for adoption outside the EU. (EU won't transition to a different port unless it's widely used globally). Once there is enough momentum to revise the standard we get:
• 2–3 years for EU regulatory + political review. Even the EU agrees! Yay. Now it's approved to be put on phones in sold in the EU, and we have to wait for:
• 1–2 years for industry transition.

Again, I’m a big fan of USB-C and am glad it's on the iPhone, but codifying it into law did nothing other than making it harder for a better port to emerge (and maybe pushing Apple's transition on iPhone forward by a year or two). When the EU tried to make Micro-USB mandatory, their argument was that it was unlikely that a better connector would come out. Look how wrong they were. But now they're definitely right that USB-C is "good enough" and it's unlikely that a port will get better? It couldn't be thinner, or faster? Ports are the one thing in tech that can't get better? We think government bureaucrats know better than hardware engineers working on state-of-the-art projects?

If Apple hadn't pushed back hard on the EU's initial attempt to standardize we'd probably all be using Micro-USB phones today. And still a lot of MacRumors posters know that and go “yes, I think the government mandating a charger connector makes sense.”

Personally, I'd rather it be tech companies deciding what is "good enough" than the EU.

I think we shall agree we disagree, right?

I get what you are saying, but I think that the free market would never cause a shift from usb-c, due to its almost universality.

And for a theoretical and potential benefit, you are accepting a given malus