So the Mac isn’t secure? I doubt Apple would agree with that.
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iPadOS Identified as Digital 'Gatekeeper' Under New EU Tech Rules
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If Apple is ready to do that, it might be better to simply follow the DMA. It is easier and more respectable route to take for Apple instead of getting forced by governments.
Or just maybe there are a lot of consumers completely satisfied with the experience Apple is already providing.
It's the EU that isn't following the DMA. They've admitted that iPadOS doesn't meet the thresholds they set to determine what was a "gatekeeper" and what wasn't. See below...
"Our market investigation showed that despite not meeting the thresholds, iPadOS constitutes an important gateway on which many companies rely to reach their customers."
Then continue on as normal and nothing will affect you
You mean the DMA which is so intentionally vague that nobody really knows whether Apple is in compliance or not?
That would only be possible if the EU required app developers to always sell their apps in the App Store.
Yes. That is why the EU went with a different set of criteria rather than market share. They know that market share is not everything.
This! I forgot where I read it, but someone wrote that he would need to be paid north of 10,000 dollars to be forced to switch over from Mac to Windows. But on Mac, you have the freedom to choose where to get your software from (App Store, website, terminal, homebrew package manager, etc.).
On iOS/iPad, you are forced to use the App Store and developers have no choice. Yes, Apple did a great job with the App Store, but it has been dictating what you can install on your iPhone (and later, iPad) for already 16 years(!).
As a shareholder I can't ever see this happening. Apple luckily follows the local laws, be it China, India, UK or EU. As it should be. And by the way, European companies follow your silly rules too, like when EU airlines fly to the US they have to give you all sorts of personal passenger data that would be illegal to collect here.
I just hope they can keep this heavy-handed approach in the EU and not bring it to the USA.
Game consoles can run consumer/business software. The companies that make them just don't allow it to be sold on the platform.
Actually Apple executives do agree with that:
"Today, we have a level of malware on the Mac that we don't find acceptable," Federighi told the court in testimony. “If you took Mac security techniques and applied them to the iOS ecosystem, with all those devices, all that value, it would get run over to a degree dramatically worse than is already happening on the Mac. Put that same situation in place for iOS and it would be a very bad situation for our customers".
What is vague about the DMA. Apple seems to understand it clearly when it tries to find ways to circumvent the rules. Look at all the convoluted ways it has tried to comply.
The vagueness only comes when it has to follow them.
They don't actually have criteria anymore. They've admitted that iPadOS doesn't meet the DMA thresholds but they're going to treat it like a "gatekeeper" anyway. See below...
"Our market investigation showed that despite not meeting the thresholds, iPadOS constitutes an important gateway on which many companies rely to reach their customers."
This quote is taken completely out of context. Business use alone is 11x the threshold for gatekeeper status. That’s already an existing rule; the goalpost didn’t move. This quote was simply adding context to the additional info that on the consumer side, the threshold hasn’t been met *yet*. Consumer usage is close enough that, had the business use not already passed the threshold, iPadOS would still pass it in the coming months/years anyway due to the consumer user base expanding.
Editing to also add, you’ve posted this same quote over 5 times…
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Yes, they have different sets of criteria.
- Apple's business user numbers exceeded the quantitative threshold elevenfold, while its end user numbers were close to the threshold and are predicted to rise in the near future.
- End users are locked-in to iPadOS. Apple leverages its large ecosystem to disincentivise end users from switching to other operating systems for tablets.
- Business users are locked-in to iPadOS because of its large and commercially attractive user base, and its importance for certain use cases, such as gaming apps.
Apple's not providing iOS updates to devices that are only two years old? I missed that rumor.
To build on your analogy, there is a point at which automakers stop making replacement parts for their vehicles, at which point third-parties often step in to produce them.
The EU is smart enough to use other criteria to snag Apple instead of monopoly
How do you know millions of people like it? I own a ton of Apple devices and I think it's ******** to lock the iOS like they do. They don't protect anything besides their profit margins. Or otherwise sideloading would be not allowed on MacOS as well.
Because both use the same underlying webkit engine used by Safari rather than the Chromium engine. This is old news.
There is no "con" going on here.
Apple is just trying to maximize revenue for the products they sell.
It has never been a secret that the App Store is a gatekeeper for software for the iPad (and iPhone.)
I agree. Without the App Store, the iPad would have probably failed. However, I also think the iPad would have failed with a Mac-like approach. Turns out, the “locked-in” model was very successful and customers like the iPad a lot. And Apple was (and is) responsible for the decisions they take. If they’re right, they will benefits from high customer satisfaction; if they’re wrong, they won’t sell products.