So much doom and gloom and apparently most here did not read the actual document.
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Impending EU Regulation to Force Apple to Allow Third-Party App Stores and Open Up iMessage
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Doesn't matter what the document is; you going for force software manufacturers to design to the lowest common denominator. The regulations are socialistic in nature and I think over time this is going to have a chilling effect in the EU. YMMV.
Most already do.
You see it as socialistic (which I heavily disagree with). I see it as pushing interoperability granting consumers a broader range and greater flexibility. That said I do not agree with all listed however I do not see it as a doom and gloom on the "smart phone" world of Apple/Google/Others.
It cracks me up when I see this “solution.” So Apple is going to make a phone that nobody would want and is way too expensive for what you get? Wherever they do this, iPhone sales would evaporate overnight.
What security? Did you not see how Pegasus just shredded Apple's so-called security, to the delight of brutal, socialist, authoritarian, freedom-hating regimes?
Yeah, keep telling yourself that that's the reason that we don't want additional roads bulldozed into the walled garden. Clearly it's obvious that we just hate freedom.
Do you start out by assuming that everyone who doesn't share your preferences is evil and just work back from there? How do you arrive at the point of actually believing that we "hate freedom"?The problem is, as soon as some super popular app, or, say, some app that you need for work, decides to go the route of only offering their app via some third party store (their own or someone else's - and there will be third-party app stores working very hard to get exclusive deals, to gain exposure for themselves), then you start breaking down the walled garden.
Currently there are two main ecosystem models available: a walled garden, and an open free-for-all.
Many of us have chosen the walled garden model on purpose, for ourselves.
You are quite free to choose the open free-for-all for yourself. AND YOU CAN DO THAT RIGHT NOW, just walk into any phone store in the world today and buy an Android phone.
Yet here you are, insisting that the walled garden ecosystem model must be killed off, and everything must be an open free-for-all, regardless of the fact that many actively prefer the walled garden choice.
Tell me again who is pushing hard to force their choices on other people?
The sycophancy on display in this forum towards a global corporation is downright weird.
Regarding the app store, Apple is not going to be so foolish as to provide advertising and marketing via their app store for devs who then sell at a discount through another store. It will be one or the other, not both.
How many choices are available on the iPhone itself, besides said walled garden? If certain iPhone users want apps outside of the App Store, how does that affect your precious walled garden?
Agreed -- I'd also add that it shows just how effective astroturfing, propaganda and messaging are though -- especially in a polarized world.
People get in their tribes and boy do they stick to their guns!
Seriously? It's not as if Apple won't have to allocate additional resources to tweaking their software to allow other app stores onto the platform. Many developers are also demanding access to Apple's APIs... As someone else said, its forcing them to operate (on multiple levels) for the lowest common denominator.
Nobody is arguing that choice is a bad thing. The debate is over Apple being forced to implement such changes.
A 2 trillion dollar having to spend a couple of extra bucks to comply with legislation? The horror.
The iOS Messages app was built to use SMS, switching to iMessage only if both ends of the conversation supported iMessage. The interoperability layer is already there. It's SMS. It's been around a long time.
Nobody is arguing they don't have the resources to do so. The argument is whether they should be forced to.
If Apple's App Store is the best for consumers they have nothing to worry about. It is interesting that people who are against the freedom to choose your App Store saying the EU regulation is against freedom etc.
You're not understanding - not sure whether that's intentional or not. The entire iPhone ecosystem model is the walled garden. If what you wanted was something other than the walled garden model, and you bought an iPhone, then you failed to do the proper research before buying - which sees like a serious mistake to make when preparing to purchase something costing many hundreds of dollars. If it's within the first 14 days of buying the iPhone, return it and get an Android phone. If you're past the return window, well, that's on you. You can probably sell it on the used market and put the money towards an Android phone.
Buying an iPhone and then insisting it must be opened up so that it's no longer a walled garden (and, no, you can't put in an expressway and still try to call it a walled garden) is like buying an electric vehicle and demanding it be retrofitted to run on gasoline so you can fill it up at gas stations. If you wanted a car that ran on gasoline and you bought an electric vehicle, that's your problem, no something for the government to fix for you.
There probably are people who purchase the iPhone for the App Store and I don't doubt that some are in this thread, I'm just not convinced this accurately reflects how people's purchase decisions are actually made out in the wild.
People buy iPhones for all sorts of reasons and making it about a singular issue really misses the point for most people. Some people buy it for the cameras, or because it works well with their Mac, or because they've always had an iPhone, or because it's a pretty lifestyle product or, yes, because they like the app distribution model. The fact is people don't have a choice, for better or worse (!), and that gives Apple (and all the gatekeepers in other areas) quite a bit of power over all sorts of things.
From the perspective of a regulator of an entire market -- one that has a vested interest in enabling more competition and innovation particularly from local companies -- the argument that all people had to do was to switch their entire ecosystem is not really credible.
If a platform reaches a certain market power, particularly if that platform is under the exclusive control of a simple company, it even become immaterial because the objective becomes that such platform advantages cannot be leveraged to shut out competition, which they very obviously are.
And here we are.
To be fair there is a possibility. Let's take the app Fortnite for example. It is not available on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store after getting removed. However, it is available on the Samsung Galaxy Store. Developers could, in-theory, provide their apps only on the 3rd party stores.
Maybe check before you post something
iPhone Release Date: 2007
What’sApp Release Date: 2009
After months at beta stage, the official first release of WhatsApp launched in November 2009, exclusively on the App Store for iPhone
It literally wouldn’t exist without the iPhone
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But it is credible. In the context of smart phones, switching an "entire" ecosystem is not hard from a consumer perspective. People do it every day for any number of reasons.
They do, but also not really. Last figures I remember are probably between 80-90% of people buying the same operating system as before. Which is great for Apple from a business perspective, no doubt, but when the public policy goal is to create more competition in digital services it's just not an effective lever.
This is an excellent example. If Apple is forced to open up to 3rd party stores, it would likely only be a matter of time before we're flooded with dozens of stores because everybody wants to have their own. Obviously there will be plenty of legitimate and safe stores, but you can bet your a** that there will be tons of scammers setting up their own stores and targeting unsuspecting users with malware hidden in what they think is a legitimate app.
If that happens, will those same governments that forced the open platform down users' throats then crack down on the d-bags running said 3rd party stores, or compensate users for being scammed into oblivion? I think not.