Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals

appleinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

691–700 of 1001 posts

Re: EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals

#691

Post by sfg »

cmcaleer wrote: post #216
tinus_hn wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only there were phones that did exactly what you wanted

The Pixel 5's security update end of life is in two weeks[0]. This is a phone that launched October 2020. My iPhone XS which I bought in 2018 just got the iOS 17 update and it's working pretty well. I want to be able to load whatever I want on my phone, but I also don't want to have to buy a new phone every couple years (or sooner! Looks like the 5a is still in production with security updates ending in 11 months) to…

A closed system makes long-term support easier.

Re: EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals

#692

Post by zmmmmm »

jd24 wrote: post #583

Just use android if you care about things being open. Apple products are good because of the walled garden. Most people just want things to work out of the box, not to tinker with options.

"Just use X if you don't like Y" works up until the point where the choice carries significant cost to the user. For example, "choosing" not to use iPhone means you can't Facetime or iMessage with your friends. It's no longer "just choose not iPhone", it's "just choose not to communicate with friends and family".

Essentially, Apple gave up the right to assert this argument when they decided to abuse their control with iMessage as an explicit way of locking users into their system (which is just one example).

Re: EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals

#693

Post by anhner »

I remember years ago, when the EU first announced they would force Apple to switch to USB-C (well, not specifically Apple, but mandate a single cable type), there were droves of users on HN wailing that "what business does EU have to dictate which cable companies should use?"

Yet here we are, everyone praising iPhone 15 for having a USB-C connector. I am looking forward to a couple of years down the line when we can say the same about the App Store.

Worldwide, Android has a bigger market share than iPhone and it also allows alternative stores, and lo and behold, none of the things that users here complain about have come to pass.

Re: EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals

#694

Post by marcus_holmes »

robertlagrant wrote: post #670
noirscape wrote: post #660

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Blink becomes a monopoly, and with it chromium, then Google can finally be "properly" hit with an antitrust case over Chrome. Especially when combined with the fact the big G can't keep directly funding Firefox to create a fake competition anymore under the new rules from the digital markets act. Google should've been hit with an antitrust case on Chrome years ago and their recent shenanigans with the topics api o…

> If V8 becomes a monopoly, and with it chromium, then Google can finally be "properly" hit with an antitrust case over Chrome V8 isn't a monopoly in the antitrust sense, at all. Google gives away the source code to most of Chrome that allows other people to make browsers with it, and they do. Something being popular doesn't indicate a monopoly. Microsoft could choose to make a browser engine, but they don't, and it'…

I think this isn't the case. There were alternatives to Internet Explorer, yet Microsoft was hit with antitrust measures for defaulting to IE.

I believe that something being sufficiently popular does make it a monopoly in the antitrust sense - there's language around "market dominance" in there [0].

I'm just an MBA not a lawyer, though.

0: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/monopoly.asp

Re: EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals

#695

Post by etiennebausson »

idkwhoiam wrote: post #614

Hey EU, can you please ask BMW to open everything up to its rivals so that I can use Toyota's infotainment system instead of BMW's iDrive. I also want to be able to run PS games on XBox & vice versa without having to buy separate copies. And lastly, how about you open up your very own market to everyone by lifting protectionist taxes

The "protectionist taxes" are the way the U.E. give a chance to local corps against exported of slave-labor, which two of the world's biggest exporters are quite fond of.

It doesn't matter that they don't call it slave labor locally, label don't change the facts.

Seems more than justified to me.

Re: EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals

#696

Post by gigatexal »

Moldoteck wrote: post #637
gigatexal wrote: post #523

I’m going to get pilloried for this but I like the rather draconian heavy handed way Apple keeps iOS locked down. It’s an appliance. I can trust it. If or when it gets opened up I’ll still stick to all the Apple or first party stores and things. That the iPhone is locked down and android is open is a feature and difference that consumers choose I think.

So you say iphone can offer alternate stores/sideload and still keep old behavior for users that want to stay in apple's ecosystem? So why lock down iphone then? Consumers that want it locked down, will keep their old routines...

If governments force Apple's hand so be it what can Apple do then, but if I could help it, I'd not want it to be opened up for 3rd parties.

Re: EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals

#697

Post by gigatexal »

politelemon wrote: post #624
FredPret wrote: post #560

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a prison to keep me in. It’s a wall to keep bad things out.

This reads like a modern retelling of the Stockholm syndrome and I cringe at this prevalent attitude on HN. If you do not have choice on the platform, you are in a prison. That is why it's called jailbreaking .

Are you or folks that take this same tact marching on Microsoft and Sony with pitchforks to open up the OS and hardware for Xbox and PlayStation?

Re: EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals

#698

Post by sensanaty »

savanaly wrote: post #263
Andrew_nenakhov wrote: post #67

It is understandable why Apple wants to keep its current grip on iOS indefinitely. What I don't understand is why some people defend it, on this very forum! One commenter simultaneously defended gay marriages - "if you don't like gay marriages, don't get married to gays" - and defended the Apple's monopoly - "I like that there is only one Appstore and developers won't force me to sideload".

It comes down to this: I support companies being free to sell the product they want and users being free to buy what they want. If Apple sells a phone that's locked down, a piece of junk, wonderful, or anything in between that's between them and their customers. It's not the government's role to step in and prevent those voluntary transactions IMO. I would allow exceptions for grievous bodily injury and so on in my o…

> It's not the government's role to step in and prevent those voluntary transactions IMO

I'm a EU citizen and I'm more than happy that they're taking on Apple for this. After all, they're doing business with EU citizens, why shouldn't the EU tell them to behave?

If they don't like it, they can just stop selling in the EU, no one's gonna stop them there, but seeing as it's a money hungry megacorp hellbent on hoovering up every single penny that exists on this planet, that obviously isn't gonna happen, so they'll have to play by the EU's rules in that case.

Re: EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals

#699

Post by FridgeSeal »

Moldoteck wrote: post #676
runeks wrote: post #662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> […] you have the freedom to not install them What if Instagram decides to require side loading to install their app — in order to increase ad revenue?

Don't use instagram, simple choice))) Or, hear me out, you would be able to use insta in the browser with iblock installed so that you don't have ads and part of tracking!

And what about the users who wish to use Insta for sharing photos on socials, but don’t want to allow fb wholesale access to their data? Why are their concerns so glibly ignored?

Re: EU tells Apple to open everything up to its rivals

#700

Post by vineyardmike »

Moldoteck wrote: post #622
nouveaux wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just spitballing here but it's possible that Android's openness is exactly why Google Pixel doesn't have better resources to have long term support. Some bean counters probably determined that Google doesn't make enough money to have teams supporting older Pixels. Samsung is taking a ton of profits from Pixel and the end result is piss poor Android support on Pixels. Guess what? Samsung doesn't care about long term A…

Imo it's bs in the context where fairphone 5 will have 8y of os updates

Pretty sure Samsung has sold more SKUs than fair phone has sold actual phones. It’s a pretty ridiculous comparison. Have they even been shipping phones for 8y?
Post reply on HN