First, the experience is getting objectively worse (see nerfing of the PWA).
Second I'm tired of Europe taking me for an imbecile.
I know full well that buying into Apple means buying into a walled garden.
THAT'S THE REASON WHY I BUY APPLE.
I want a streamlined, coherent experience between all my systems (iphone/watch/ipad/mac).
I don't need the supposed freedom of contributing to the dominance of the ****** Chrome Browser.
agree with you there. consumers will see very little if any benefit. Just a way to help MS and Google force their dominance onto iOS.
I like a level of openness, USB-C was good, deeply linked third party password manager and OTP passcode support, setting default browser and e-mail client is good. Standardising MagSafe as QI2, reliable third party BT headphone support (apple do this more than they get credit for). Don't have to buy an apple licensed lightning cable, can use any non apple Qi2 charger to get 15W charging now, can use any third party BT headphones and get a good experience (arguably better than the AirPods if you ask me), you get same experience with a third party password manager as you do with iCloud keychain now etc... RCS support coming soon. All stuff like this is good for consumers.
Apple should also probably not charge developers a fee on subscriptions that they also compete in (because that is anticompetitive, like towards spotify for example), but these EU changes do nothing about that.
The fundamental workings of iOS in its current form are fine, i see very few ordinary users (outside these forums) who actually want a third party store on their phone. Seems like Google and MS lobbied the EU and got what they wanted. It's all about others making money on iOS, nothing to do with consumer choice.
Here is a potentially worrying scenario - Meta launch an app store for iOS in the EU, this is now the only way to get WhatsApp. This sounds to me like abuse of market dominance by meta.