That's good. Your previous reply implied that your position was somehow superior because "governments all around the world" agree with you, which is a logical fallacy, so I'm glad you reject that.
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EU to Accuse Apple of Unfairly Blocking Third-Party Access to NFC Payment Technology on iPhone
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That's good. Your previous reply implied that your position was somehow superior because "governments all around the world" agree with you, which is a logical fallacy, so I'm glad you reject that.
You can just use another app.
One from a (one of the thousands) developer that does offer it on Apple’s App Store.
So? You buy and use another!?
They may be important. To you. Or me.
So is the smartphone platform.
But… here’s the thing: I fully agree with you that there are “important” apps that would drive users to install apps from third-party sources.
However, there’s much lower barriers to enter the market for apps - than there is for manufacturing smartphones (manufacturing, patents, regulatory certification). Consequently, there’s lots of app develops - but very few makers of smartphones, let alone their operating systems and app stores.
We should remind ourselves that Apple can “pull” any app from the App Store at any time. At will.
Even more, they can pull or prohibit entire categories of apps from the App Store.
For you and me, that may be gaming console emulators or video downloading apps. For others, it may be VPN apps that protects them from surveillance and interference by their tyrannic government.
? If availability or lack of “important” apps is an issue, the “monopoly” that Apple has on iOS app distribution is (at least in principle, technologically and contractually) a hundred times “worse”, i.e. far-reaching and prone to potential abuse or censorship.
If you’re honestly concerned about availability or lack of certain apps, why are you advocating that one single “gatekeeper” (Apple) control all of the distribution for your desired platform? Instead of a decentralised systrm, where everyone can develop and distribute apps?
If Apple decides - for whatever reason - to ban FF7 or whatnot, there’s no trustworthy way for you to download, install and run it on your device.
Government regulation may change that and ensure that you can can at least get your desired app somehow.
The current state of affairs doesn’t - you are, we all are very much at Apple’s whim.
It’s just that many people (blindly believe that Apple’s policies and management of the app ecosystem are aligned with their own interest and preferences, that Apple “knows what’s best for everyone”.
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And some of the advantages they’ve created are anti-competitive. Only they get access to NFC, meanwhile they compete directly with other banks and credit card companies. Apple can charge Spotify 30% on subscriptions while Apple Music faces no such barrier. Governments can see this kind of stuff for what it is, even if you want to ignore it.
Nope, just wanted to point out that my view isn’t some half-baked viewpoint only I and three other people hold and came up with overnight. There has been a lot of research, data, and reports on these issues collected by various government entities, backing up their positions.
If you’re leveraging your large user base and market share in smartphones (or their OS) to muscle your way in to consumer payments (the ones that take place millions of times every day in economies such as the EU), competition, competition authorities and ultimately regulators will take notice.
Consumer and card payments are heavily (and quite successfully) regulated in the EU. Card payments are already in the process of being replaced by their virtual counterparts on consumer’s smartphones. Physical cards are probably going to merely act fallback payment devices in the foreseeable future.
What Apple is doing with Apple Pay, is muscling their way in between card issuers, schemes, consumers and merchants, to charge (albeit a very small) share of every card payment transaction that iPhone-owning consumers are going to make at merchants, physical retail stores and service establishments.
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Again, that's not anti-competitive. They aren't interfering with competition. They're spending money to make their product better than the competition. Similarly, they don't get access to the NFC chips on their competitors credit cards.
No such barrier? Apple invested billions to create the platform that Spotify currently pays a minimal amount to operate on. Do they not deserve to benefit from their investment?
I don't think anyone here who disagrees with you thinks that nor has implied that. We simply have differing fundamental views on the role of government.
well if apple does that iOS wont be more secure that the garbage android system anymore
A. Prior to iOS/App Store and Android/Play Store there was no robust market for apps on smartphones or billions of dollars being generated by app developers. So nobody can make the argument that iOS/App Store or Android/Play Store made things worse for consumers OR developers versus what the prior "gatekeepers" of smartphones provided.
B. Windows/Mac have a decentralized system...with significantly higher prices for software and significantly higher incidences of malware etc., neither or which can be argued as being an advantage for consumers versus the centralized systems on mobile.
Considering that both of those points are 100% true, that means that the EU's idea of what should constitute a "competitive" market for apps on mobile has no prior precedent ANYWHERE. Are they suggesting that mobile app prices should rise to the level of desktop/laptop? Are they fine with mobile malware rising to the same level as desktop/laptop? Why would they consider that a competitive improvement?
Look at two of the biggest companies that have complained about iOS: Epic and Microsoft. Those are both gaming oriented companies that didn't have that much of a mobile presence UNTIL MOBILE GAMING REVENUE ECLIPSED PC AND CONSOLE GAMING REVENUE COMBINED. Now all of a sudden they think it's really, really important to have a mobile presence...and of course they want to do it through their own stores and try to exert the same level of dominance on mobile gaming as they have had on PC/console gaming. I guess everyone is supposed to think it's all a coincidence?
Errm maybe try develop safe software? security through obscurity was never a good idea.
No, it isn't Apple's "propaganda". Example: the info below comes from Nokia, not Apple.
Apple’s IPhone Security Is at Risk From Congress
Potential remedies tied to antitrust legislation could weaken key safeguards, harming consumers.www.bloomberg.com
According to a 2020 Nokia Threat Intelligence Report, Apple’s iOS was afflicted with the smallest percentage of overall malware infections at 1.7%, compared to 27% for Android and 39% for Windows PCs. The researchers credited the divergence to the fact that Alphabet Inc.’s Google Android system allows the installation of apps from external sources, while Apple’s does not.
iOS vs. Android: Which OS Is More Secure in 2022?
iOS vs. Android: Which OS is more secure? To find out, we have to consider vulnerabilities found in each operating system’s updates over the years.
clario.co
No, Your iPhone Is Not More Secure Than Android, Warns Cyber Billionaire
An alarming new surge in malicious apps is a much more serious threat to iPhone users than you might think...
www.forbes.com
I don't think bug free software is a realistic idea.
Which is why Apple chose a successful combination of trying to make their platform as secure as possible and reviewing third-party apps. Neither half being perfect, so they work together to keep consumers safer than either strategy alone.
Just pull out of the EU. They'll cave when they're people can't get their iPhones anymore because they want to stay in office.
There also weren’t any platforms technologically advanced and powerful enough to rival (or surpass) computers in user experience for such apps.
I wouldn’t say that’s “100%” true, if you factor in open-source apps and the complexity feature range.
Though customer’s willingness to pay tends to be lower on mobile yes. But that’s more a product of the form factor, not the distribution method.
There’s few (if any) precedents for more competition and freedom (and enabling of direct sales models) in sales/distribution of products leading to higher prices. Quite the contrary.
I’d rather take a couple of games developers / distributors enjoying some market dominance in mobile gaming from the popularity of their gaming brands/properties…
…than one (or, counting Google, two) OS developer, a.k.a. a gatekeeper having a(n almost) 100% dominance in every software sale of any category for its platform by way of forcing every sale to go through it’s own system with digital signing certificates.
So seem EU legislators to think about these gatekeepers.
Restrictions on distribution of games also also seen as a minor problem compared to if we’re talking every piece and category of software/application.
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I do want options but not at the expense of security.
you know that the plan here is ?
Apple is not giving data to others so all the companies including cell phone service providers want to go after Apple.
if Apple lets companies create their own App Store then they don't have to follow apple privacy rules.
Once Apple allows other App stores, none of the apps in Apple App Store will be updated and they will force us to use apps from other app stores that don't have any restriction on privacy.
EU wants iPhone/iOS to look exactly like Android, with out privacy & security.
The criteria that Clario used to determine "security" is absurd. Web searches for OS update problems? That has nothing to do with security at all.iOS vs. Android: Which OS Is More Secure in 2022?
iOS vs. Android: Which OS is more secure? To find out, we have to consider vulnerabilities found in each operating system’s updates over the years.
No, Your iPhone Is Not More Secure Than Android, Warns Cyber Billionaire
An alarming new surge in malicious apps is a much more serious threat to iPhone users than you might think...
it is difficult.
Once Apple allows FB to open their own App Store, FB won't update FB app in Apple App Store, so people will be forced to use FB app from FB App Store, now FB wins because FB App Store won't have any restrictions on privacy.
this is the plan, even Cell phone service providers in EU are complaining to EU that they are not getting user data from iPhone users.
this is all about getting the iPhone users data.
if Apple can roll back all the privacy restrictions people will shut up and won't complain.
What if banks stop supporting Apple Pay and force us to use their apps ?
this is all about how to get more data from iPhone users, people didn't complain before Apple put privacy restrictions in place.
Apples 30% cut. When Tim says security he means profits.
Yes the OS’s I mentioned don’t exist because developers chose no to support them and they died off. Now you have only 2 options to choose from.
This problem with lack of choice and monopoly between Android and iOS is a problem developers created by not supporting other operating system they killed them off.
EU cares about privacy ? then would EU pass a law that says all app stores on iPhone should have same privacy restrictions as Apple App Store ?
Robust privacy protection only comes from technologically sandboxing applications and giving users a (privacy setting) choice that gets safely enforced by the OS. It does not come from the origin of the app download and distribution model, as evidence by countless fake/phishing apps in the app store, and the iOS clipboard “surveillance” affair.
Control over app revenue streams, on the other hand, is primarily a result of the allowed (and enforced) distribution model.
Apple are just deliberately conflating these two points by arguing that only their monopoly on iOS distribution could guarantee privacy.
it didn't happen on Android because there are no privacy restrictions on Android App Store.
The plan here is to bypass Apple App Store restrictions on security and privacy.
I can bet that if Apple can reverse all the restrictions they put in place, all these people complaining would stop.