51–60 of 174 posts
As cool how unified the Apple ecosystem is, I do think the EU is right that it's extremely unfair for Apple to give its own smartwatches access to the phone that other smartwatches have zero chance of getting access to.
DMA does not provide any means to run Linux on Apple devices. I don't want their shitty OS, but I like their hardware. Unfortunately, the law makers prefer to cement oligopolies (Android-iPhone), instead of installing fines for not documentating how their hardware works.
Regulating the requirement that Apple support Linux on Macs makes no sense. What does make sense - to me anyway - is for Apple to embrace Linux because they'd sell a lot more Macs. I assume there are many thousands of developers like me that detest macOS and won't even consider a Mac. But like you said, Apple is making some amazing hardware these days. I would buy a Mac if Linux was well supported. Apple did just fin…
I say that as someone that prefers to use Linux.
EU forgets that this kind of overzealous, micromanaging intervention only reduces incentives to innovate new features and products. If the EU forces companies with a competitive edge (better software, in this case) to make it available to their competitors, what’s the point? I can make my own decisions about which platforms and software to use, thank you very much. I don’t need or want EU to force companies to build…
I’m completely convinced that no one at the EU wants to micro manage any of this. But they have to. Because Apple has been failing to read the room for years.
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This sounds highly unlikely, as it would drastically hurt the sales of adjacent devices and accessories. In my opinion, the most likely outcome is the Apple regular, where they release docs, but the docs are so bad that they're practically unworkable.
If Apple has the choice to give up developing products in a controlled, vertically integrated manner OR losing a substantial fraction of EU device and accessory sales, I don’t think that’s a hard one for them. We already see it in another regulatory regime, with AI features coming much later to the EU, if at all.
This is FUD from Apple fanboys, Apple delayed their shit in UK and other non EU countries. Apple was probably incapable to release those AI features at the same time in more then a few countries.
And guess what, OpenAI , Anthropic and other AI companies will for sure try to replace Siri and Apple will try to avoid that and hopefully would pay fair and not cripple competitors.
I am from EU and I am not missing any AI providers, maybe some alpha/beta stuff that launches first in USA before they add the features about protecting the privacy of the user or until the lawyers are done rewording the ToS on how they sell your data but word it as a good thing.
After TikTok getting banned(postponed for now) in US for national security reasons, and after US cutting military support and intelligence in Ukraine I was expecting for things to start rolling by now.
They already start doing things on the military side of things with restricting the military equipment purchases to EU only with exceptions granted on the basis that foreign supplier should NOT have a way to shut down equipment use(be it a Killswitch, political pressure or supply chain control).
If USA decides to side with Russia on the invasion of Europe or maybe just annexing Greenland, they can shut down EU telecommunications or air propaganda messaging over Apple/Google devices or platforms and other social media platforms.
What worked for Russia and China was to restrict their markets and guarantee opportunities for homegrown alternatives.
I still expect for EU and pretty much all the world to end up doing this. I'm not enjoying it, I don't want things to go this way but no way that EU can afford giving full communications control to a hostile country.
Tough times ahead, this DMA stuff was the right approach last year. Sometime in the next 4 year a private company will be used to do something acutely military or political to EU like they did in Ukraine and enough people will panic and a similar response will be generated.
IMHO Apple will be served better if they play ball and make themselves useless for public warfare purposes and ensure continued access to EU market even if it means potential losses on services revenue. This will give them opportunity to say that you can just use EU services and keep buying the iPhones.
I expect Apple will react to this by scaling down the sophistication and breadth of features they make available to EU users. That most of these capabilities exist at all reflects Apple’s belief that they’re a way to differentiate their (closed) ecosystem through vertical integration. If the EU takes that away, Apple’s motivation to invest in these areas for EU customers goes away, too.
Lots of stuff is going to shift away from Mac / windows in the next years. If apple assumes they can get away with this tactic they’ll lose even more market share. Not because the alternatives are better, but just because the exceptions that were made from valid legislation will not be prolonged in face of the “New American Way”. All hinges on the future of the TDPF. https://www.euractiv.com/section/tech/news/deafeni…
How successful this all will be, another question.
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> product design culture they’ve honed for almost 50 year That's an interesting way to phrase not supporting non-Apple interoperability.
It’s also a way to phrase, “Hey, we’ve figured out how to save 10% battery life on the Watch by rejiggering the sync protocol and can ship it in the next iOS / watchOS point release.” The flexibility and agility you have when the only engineering constraints are internal are night and day vs. having to evolve a documented external spec with interop requirements.
As an EU citizen, I don't like everything they do, but the DMA is rocking as otherwise we'll end up with 5-10 companies basically running all technology and way less competition.
It's very interesting to me that so many people claim to be in favour of competition but don't like laws like the DMA.
Apple fanboys, no need to worry!
If you’re in the US, all these features will be geoblocked, so you can enjoy your walled garden as much as you like. If you’re in the EU, just stick to Apple products and avoid any alternatives.
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This sounds highly unlikely, as it would drastically hurt the sales of adjacent devices and accessories. In my opinion, the most likely outcome is the Apple regular, where they release docs, but the docs are so bad that they're practically unworkable.
It might hurt short term sales, but it helps paint a picture of “evil EU won’t let us sell you the latest features”. I.e.: propaganda fuel.