iOS 19 and iOS 20 Must Include a Long List of Major Changes, EU Says

[ForkHandles]

Apple have a monopoly. They are a Digital Gateway

Are they using their monopoly on iOS and iPhone to get an unfair advantage in the Bluetooth headphone market?

Yes

This is not good enough. Monopolies are bad for consumers.

 

[TigerNike23]

Does the EU allow other media companies access to Spotify’s algorithms?

 

[con2apple]

It looks like the European Union is slowly dismantling iOS. I hope that Apple fights back and defend their IP.

So iOS means that the user is prescribed what to use and how, and that they have to use Apple, no matter how bad it is?

I can already see the next Macrumors article complaining that only European users are benefiting from an improvement.
Monopolies and restrictions are never positive for the end customer.

 

[Gabebear]

The only one I think is reasonable is

• Third-party smartwatches must be able to display and interact with iOS notifications by the end of 2025, which likely means iOS 19.2 or earlier.
  

Devices can already display text notifications and respond to them with a "positive" or "negative", but nothing more.

Audio switching based on AppleID... GFTO. Plenty of earbuds have multipoint bluetooth without AppleID. I actually prefer Shokz implementation to Apples because I have tighter control over what devices it will connect to and works with any bluetooth audio device.

Airdrop is already widely used inappropriately... I think Apple would be best to just disable this in the EU rather than allow third-party to make this worse.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Some of these make complete sense.
Some of them are a lot less easy to understand, but still, okay.
Some of them sound like they could devolve into security disasters

 

[JamieLannister]

How would they do automatic third party audio switching without the h1 and h2 chip?

I mean look at the Beats line of products that don't have H1/H2 chipsets and they can't function the same way either. And Apple owns beats.

 

[DocMultimedia]

The days of selling (through official channels) to the EU are ending. I'm sure all the citizens are looking forward to Nokia and Droids.

 

[rdinterman]

Time for Apple to pull the plug on the EU. Ridiculous demands.

 

[robotfist]

Some of these demands are borderline ridiculous. I mean, I'm all for open source progress, but let's hold these decisions up to the standards of other products. Is the EU going to force all PC and Android software companies to produce Apple compatible versions of all their products? Are they going to force car manufacturers to make all their parts interchangeable and compatible with each other? Are they going to force all refrigerators to offer ice machines?

 

[con2apple]

Does the EU allow other media companies access to Spotify’s algorithms?

Is the EU demanding that Apple disclose Siri's algorithm?

What is so bad for YOU AS A USER if the EU forces Apple to compete AND YOU ultimately get better products?

 

[JamieLannister]

Apple have a monopoly. They are a Digital Gateway

Are they using their monopoly on iOS to get an unfair advantage in the Bluetooth headphone market?

Yes

This is not good enough. Monopolies are bad for consumers.

You're not force to buy apple that always comes at premium prices. But no, you want all those features but you want to pay less. EU can go pound sand

 

[davide_eu]

Is bad for their wallet, not for EU users!

 

[maxfromdenmark]

Trump at this point should put tariffs on the EU until they exclude American companies from the DMA. They are stifling innovation
(This is a joke I promise)

So, do you wish to pay more for European stuff in the US shops or how do you expect tariffs to work?

 

[izyreal]

The EU is so far behind in the tech world that the only way they can hope to compete is by forcing American companies to give away their IP for free. This only marginally better than straight up stealing it.

America really should respond to this aggressively. This needs to be stopped.

 

[davide_eu]

It looks like the European Union is slowly dismantling iOS. I hope that Apple fights back and defend their IP.

No, they are dismantling the abuse of their market share against competition.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Most outrageous demands. If I wanted the features of an iPhone, I buy an iPhone. What's next expect Toyota parts to fit Mercedes? Expect BMW to allow Kia accessories to integrate into its system?

What's next? macOS on Intel PC's, of course! Apple's monopolistic behavior of only allowing macOS on their own proprietary equipment surely upsets someone at the EU commission! /s

 

[9081094]

Most outrageous demands. If I wanted the features of an iPhone, I buy an iPhone. What's next expect Toyota parts to fit Mercedes? Expect BMW to allow Kia accessories to integrate into its system?

It’s also common in the carworld already. Your window shield is broken? You can get a new one from Mercedes for $ 5999 or another one from brandname X for $ 2999. They’re both the same quality. You choose 😊

Also reminds me of the right to repair…

 

[Mr_Ed]

The EU can eat a bag of dicks

* Bag must be environmentally friendly, biodegradable, BPA-free, reusable for subsequent batches of dicks.

But seriously, I am on the fence here. Is all of the Apple tech (like the issue with smart watches, for example) even available for developers and other manufacturers to license to implement feature parity regarding notifications? I think it should be if it is not.

As for "equivalent alternatives" (like for AirDrop), if the end goal is interoperability, again others should be able to license and use via API. Not sure demanding "alternatives" makes sense.

 

[Unggoy Murderer]

Is bad for their wallet, not for EU users!

Apple will just end up withdrawing the features, only people who would suffer there are the EU users.

It almost happened with Apple Intelligence.

 

[MacD]

Why doesn't Apple just exit the market there? And call their bluff.

 

[lanomds1]

It looks like everyone here is an Apple shareholder, huh? These changes are fantastic for us, the consumers, because they give us more options to choose from and the confidence that things will work properly without being locked into a single ecosystem. We all know this ecosystem is just part of the monopoly Apple built to become a trillion-dollar company. I really don’t get why people are complaining about this here. iOS is never going to become Android—it’s just going to adapt better to other platforms and devices, which is GREAT for consumers. Thank you, EU!

 

[HouseLannister]

Don't forget that meanwhile the US is saying Google needs to sell off Chrome and possibly Android. Governments just want to muck with everything.

 

[CarAnalogy]

I actually agree with Apple on this. If nothing else, these other companies should be able to license the technologies for a nominal fee. Why should Apple just hand out their features for free?

I do agree that this is too heavy handed.

On the other hand, they have spent the last several years being as difficult as possible, and the last several decades being as hostile as possible to any sense of interoperability or cooperation no matter how reasonable.

People have been saying for literal years now that if Apple didn't start to at least act like they want to cooperate, they're going to wind up with a long list of specific demands that they are going to hate even more. And now it has happened.

They kind of brought this on themselves, at least to this degree.

 

[Neepman]

The EU, the REAL Jackboots are at it again.

 

[con2apple]

Some of these demands are borderline ridiculous. I mean, I'm all for open source progress, but let's hold these decisions up to the standards of other products. Is the EU going to force all PC and Android software companies to produce Apple compatible versions of all their products?

You should read it right.
The EU is not demanding that Apple disclose its programming or develop it for competitors. The EU only demands that Apple allow competitors to develop.


A thought experiment:
What if the competitors were to prove that AirDrop and AirPlay could work much more reliably if Apple invested just a little time? What if a competing version of the notifications on the Watch showed everything the device can do?
What if Apple products became as good as Apple has been promising for years but not delivering?