Massive changes will have to be implemented by Apple if this is approved.
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Impending EU Regulation to Force Apple to Allow Third-Party App Stores and Open Up iMessage
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Significant changes to enable interoperability, but no fundamental changes (and even there valid security exceptions can apply, so some provisions may actually be averted completely). For us users this will only open up new choices but it will not force anything on us.
We cannot know whether people will go for third-party app stores on iOS or not unless we have them. So, allow them and let the market deside. You cannot hope that just because it did not happen in Android, it will not happen on iOS. The results could be vastly different. Since Apple is known to look out for itself, Google and others might take this as an opportunity to cement their place by establishing their own app stores on iOS so that They are no longer dependent on the whims and fancies of Apple. Also, once all the APIs are exposed to every third-party developer, except the most loyal Apple customers, very few will use the Apple first-party apps unless they are on par or better than anything available from 3rd party developers. Good luck with that.
Across all platforms the prevailing experience is that most users actually stick with preinstalled software most of the time.
Thats the question that I have been trying to raise. Do we really think that Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft et al are going to go along with this?
That is not really in question. The time for lobbying about these new rules is up and now it's exclusively a democratic exercise, then after that an administrative one if there are any compliance issues.
Yes I suppose that is true. Presumably they lobbied and failed. Still pretty early but I really wonder if Musk will just block EU urls from Twitter? Meta is going to lose a lot more of their income. And I wonder if Apple and Google might just "turn off" the services they don't want to share publicly. Also have not seen any discussion of who pays for all this, do these companies just have to share their services to anyone who asks without being compensated for it?
If he wants to push it through as a tool to spread toxic ******** unimpeded (aka the billionaire version of "free speech") that could be one outcome to avoid other remedies being imposed.
That would diminish the value of their platforms correspondingly and the damage would be worse than making their platforms compliant in the first place.
They will have to bear the cost of making their own platforms rule-compliant, but if another service wants to connect to theirs then that other service will still have to bear the cost of building their own gateway and making it work with Apple's API, basically like any app developer, just on the server level, not (just?) within the client OS.
Edit: It is hilarious how american platforms aggressively censor ubiquitous "bad words" but actually dangerous, toxic propaganda is left completely unrestricted.
Actually it is the compliance that will cause the hurt. Meta has stated that Apple limiting their ability to track users outside of their core apps is costing them at least $10 billion per year in lost revenues. Now, the EU has made this same tracking limitation the law for all platforms, not just Apple.
From the list of "don'ts".... "Ban on tracking end users outside of the gatekeepers' core platform service for the purpose of targeted advertising, without effective consent having been granted."
So Meta, probably Amazon, Google, and all other tracker apps will now be limited in the scope of their surveillance. Since this is a(the) major part of Metas revenue model this is going to be a serious problem for them. Spread this across all platforms, mobile and desktop and it destroys a lot of revenue.
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They are free to set their own terms and conditions for their own users as they see fit (within the usual boundaries of the law).
But the messaging mandate here is not about apps, it is about connectivity, so about users being able to communicate across platform boundaries; So the APIs in question are between platform servers, not between apps and OSes.
Well, that is just too bad for corporations with crappy business models if those are deemed illegal (on top of being barred on platforms like Apple's). ?
Maybe they should go and look for a more sustainable foundation for their businesses then!
I disagree. Most of the discussion has been about messaging, but the DMA specifically includes operating systems, cloud computing services, advertising services, web browsers and virtual assistants. There have already been numerous articles published that discuss services like google assistant or Siri being forced to be available on other platforms.
I understand each party being responsible for the "infrastructure". In fact, it says that the gatekeepers must be proactive in putting this in place. However, if a small start-up now has the ability to leverage google assistant in their app, make use of the AI and all the development behind it, do they not need to pay for that capability.
I am sure that is what they will do. And if that more sustainable business model means that the limitations of the EU rulings do not support or permit them to make a profit, then they might just leave.
Sure, I can, but my family?
So you're telling me that I should force everyone ELSE to switch to another app because I picked a non-iPhone? That's rich. You can say that "we knew what we got ourselves into" all you like but as an iPhone user, you don't really think about those things. The fact is that the default for SMS is iMessage on iPhones so most users don't even realize they get locked in. They might not know that group chats are iMessage specific and if someone in the group chat changes to a non-iPhone, they don't get those iMessage messages anymore, not even as SMS, they just get cut out.
When I bought into the iPhone "ecosystem", iMessage didn't even exist so your argument doesn't hold much water either.
Why would iMessage become terrible if it's available on Android? That's interesting.
What you all fail to realize is that when you've used iPhone for over 12 years, you get locked in. And when your entire family is using iMessage, it makes it more difficult to move. That's what's genius about it. But it's also what's customer unfriendly about it. Since Apple has made these things more and more difficult, it's now come to the point where EU had to step in and make way bigger changes than if Apple had just made their own implementation from the beginning.
Apple could've avoided this if they played more nicely with others in the industry, but they don't, so now they not only have to play nice, but they have to make big changes.
It deals with those other areas, too, but the messaging-specific parts are about connectivity between messaging platforms
That is not what the DMA does.
It allows others to develop and offer a different assistant for use on a Google platform if the user chooses to use that instead, it does not mandate Google having to provide its services for free to all comers .
Where do you see that?
It specifically says...
"Allow end users to install third party apps or app stores that use or interoperate with the operating system of the gatekeeper;
Allow third parties to inter-operate with the gatekeeper's own services;"
Third party apps that inter-operate with the gatekeepers own services sure sounds like they get to use the services that Google or Apple provide.
Many published articles have come to the same conclusion. Unless you can explain this otherwise.
Some of you guys act like Apple doesn't make a mountain of profit on their hardware. But sure, they'll give all that up and leave the EU.
No the point I made is she doesn’t get malware. A movie on Amazon costs 3.49 on Amazon store not using iOS but when you use iOS it suddenly becomes 4.49 the same price as iTunes that’s the point I’m making.
I wasn't referring to Apple, rather I was talking about Meta. You should try and keep up.
Nope, regarding the virtual assistants such as Siri and Google Assitant, all it says is that gatekeepers will also be required to provide choice screens on their OSs to allow end users to easily change default settings for virtual assistants, web browsers and online search engines. They do not have to make their virtual assistants available on the other OSs.
I'm not so sure about the "easily" part.
EU has a population of almost 448 million people and Apple's business there is worth about 89 billion dollars.
The EU is regulates far more than the US and it's a good thing they do!!!!
I'm glad we have guarantees of 36 months on electronic devices (and others),
I'm glad we will have the 1 USB-C cable for all of our devices,
I'm glad that if this goes thought, we will be able to choose whether to download apps from App store or anywhere else (I will probably continue to use the app store but I want to have the coice!!!)
Etc., etc., etc.