Apple's iMessage avoids EU's Digital Markets Act regulation

Post by danaris » Tue, Feb 13, 2024, 8:31 PM UTC

lxgr wrote: post #99

danaris wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, that's true; they don't. But they still make it much more accessible to buy an iPhone for someone who doesn't have €500 or $1000 or whatever at one time to comfortably spend on one. The idea that iPhones could be a meaningful "status symbol" by this point in their lifetime, given all the ways one can obtain one cheaply if that is what one wants , and the percentage of people who own them, just doesn't hold up und…

You can finance expensive cars too – does that make them any less of a status symbol? Financing doesn't make anything cheaper relative to its alternatives (given that they can also be financed).

Post by mistersquid » Tue, Feb 13, 2024, 8:35 PM UTC

hwbehrens wrote: post #35

ghusto wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the U.S.A., people use iMessage by default, because they use text messaging. People don't use texts in Europe (we use WhatsApp and similar, but WhatsApp by a long margin). The reason people still use texts in the U.S.A. is up for debate, and it's something I've thought about for a long time.

I think it's a historical artifact -- by the time that iMessage launched, the US was well into the phase of free, unlimited texting, so there was no barrier to "just texting". Since there was also no barrier (in terms of costs, subscriptions, or installation friction) to using iMessage, it was a drop-in upgrade of the user experience for SMS. In contrast, I still have to pay a fee to send SMS messages to my European…

Post by Vt71fcAqt7 » Tue, Feb 13, 2024, 8:36 PM UTC

pb7 wrote: post #42

zinekeller wrote: post #3

I'm not surprised by the iMessage decision*, but on the Bing case I'm personally still on the bench. I guess that API-only use is exempt from DMA? * Americans, virtually no one uses iMessage outside your country, or at least to the point that it'll force you to get an iPhone. Even Japan, with their love with iPhones, uses a homegrown service for their messaging needs.

>Even Japan, with their love with iPhones, uses a homegrown service for their messaging needs. Meanwhile Europe uses another US tech giant's service. The simple answer is that most of Europe is not wealthy enough to afford iPhones and not adept enough at developing competing services without first kneecapping competition with regulation.

Post by ghaff » Tue, Feb 13, 2024, 8:38 PM UTC

ghusto wrote: post #30

marcellus23 wrote: post #24

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I'm curious, in what sense did it come "for free" in the USA?

In the U.S.A., people use iMessage by default, because they use text messaging. People don't use texts in Europe (we use WhatsApp and similar, but WhatsApp by a long margin). The reason people still use texts in the U.S.A. is up for debate, and it's something I've thought about for a long time.

Post by dns_snek » Tue, Feb 13, 2024, 8:44 PM UTC

acdha wrote: post #92

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>iPhone costs as much as an equivalent Android Only flagships, But decent Androids can be had for much less than an iPhone. Like the Samsung A54 for example. Apple doesn't have ~300 Euro phones with OLED screens in its offer.

> Apple doesn't have ~300 Euro phones with OLED screens in its offer. Sure they do, the iPhone 12 is still widely available and it’s at least twice as fast as an A54. The prestige argument just hold up when you look at the data unless you scope it to say flagships. Google and Samsung charge just as much, and they have the same decreasingly small prestige that conveys. We’re 15 years into the touchscreen era so you’re…