EU Planning to Force Apple to Give Developers Access to All Hardware and Software Features

[xpxp2002]

The hardware issue is long overdue. Devs only have, for example access to a limited amount of RAM on iPad OS which severely limits the porting of Professional-level apps (AutoCAD etc) over to the platform. Given the M1 rollout across the iPad line we might have Mac apps running on it if we had more open architecture (you know, just like the Mac and PC)

I agree with everything you said about the other two issues. Except that the PC has always limited user-space memory access. On x86 32-bit systems, apps couldn’t access or address more than 2GB of RAM, even if 3-4 was installed. This was lifted with AMD64/x86-64 running in long mode.

That’s not a regulatory or competitive issue. It’s just an architectural limitation.

 

[Beautyspin]

They have no idea what Security even mean - how can you make messaging systems interoperable.

Also are they PAYING for the huge amount of changes they are demanding for such a thing to happen which it can't ( see above ) - Also hilarious "they would have six months to comply."

Whats the point of making anything if the EU are effectively coming along and saying OPEN SOURCE all that. 40 Years of development, who cares, Redesigning communications ( along with Google ), 16 years of iOS upgrades and work - that's all ours now.

It's our consumer choice to have a closed system - I feel it's much safer and WAY more stable. Everything works as it should do for the most part.

Personally if I was in the EU, I'd get a class action suit ready to the EU for infringing my rights of security and substantially changing how our devices work behind our back.

There is of course one way around this. Create a 2nd OS iOS-EU that does all they want but can't access any Apple related features.

I doubt anybody in the EU would be stupid to buy an iPhone that is crippled.

 

[xpxp2002]

Just the kind of reaction that could net Apple a fine of its 10% of global revenue. Pull out and lose billions from this affluent market or follow the regulations and become complaint asap; those are the only two options. We all know which way Apple will go.

If you pull out, don’t need to pay the fine. Or just say, “waive the fine or we will walk regardless.”

 

[RadioHedgeFund]

If this passes, Apple should just send an email and notification to every customer in the EU saying something to the effect of, “due to your government’s heavy-handed overreach, they will be blocking Apple from providing safe and secure services, like our App Store. As a result, we can no longer legally offer these services in the EU and will cease operations within 30 days.”

Just the threat of millions of devices losing iMessage, FaceTime, and the App Store framed properly will get the public on their side. I guarantee it’d turn this whole thing around within 48 hours.

So you are on the side of gaslighting the public to achieve your aims? Apple will still operate the App Store and the majority of developers will still use it simply because doing everything yourself is a massive hassle. This is the current reality on Android.

 

[OS X Dude]

So glad we left the EU. They’re going power-mad now, terrified of further states leaving the union as several have stated a desire to do following Brexit.

Germany once again holding too many cards…

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

Woah! This EU is wanting clear transparency.

 

[Beautyspin]

If you pull out, don’t need to pay the fine. Or just say, “waive the fine or we will walk regardless.”

China did well when Google walked out. They developed local alternatives. Life goes on. Apple will be poorer. And remember, this will happen in Japan, Korea, USA, India, and many other countries. Apple will have to buy an island with all that cash and sell its products there. Is that what you want?

 

[project_2501]

So glad we left the EU. They’re going power-mad now, terrified of further states leaving the union as several have stated a desire to do following Brexit.

Germany once again holding too many cards…

how's Brexit going dude? utter disaster.

the EU is right to promote citizen's rights and to intervene in broken monopolistic markets

 

[JosephAW]

If things go according to plan the only safe apps will be web based apps.

 

[lyngo]

This will end well.

I also believe that this news won’t age well.

 

[Beautyspin]

So glad we left the EU. They’re going power-mad now, terrified of further states leaving the union as several have stated a desire to do following Brexit.

Germany once again holding too many cards…

Not sure where you are, assuming you are from the UK. Apologies if my assumption was wrong. If you are from the UK, they have exactly similar laws coming up.

UK Big Tech body 'to aid switching, cut killer acquisitions'

Just over a year after launching a dedicated unit focused on digital markets inside the national competition watchdog, the UK government has put some meat

techcrunch.com

 

[siddavis]

Only took 7 minutes for a ridiculous comment

0 minutes. The original post is ridiculous.

 

[RadioHedgeFund]

So glad we left the EU. They’re going power-mad now, terrified of further states leaving the union as several have stated a desire to do following Brexit.

Germany once again holding too many cards…

Ah yes, Brexit. The biggest western political gaslighting since the end of the Second World War. Since leaving the EU we have lost all international and self respect and put a political divide in the country so deep it will take generations to heal. And in return we gained what? A law-breaking, lying clown as PM. A cabinet with less empathy than a wasps nest. A government that launders taxpayers money into the pockets of its mates. And a Brexit that was apparently done with 2 years ago but is still in the news as it serves the Tories to keep it an ongoing issue to deflect attention away from the terrible job they are doing of running the country.

 

[breather]

Sideloading and 3rd party app stores is a misnomer. Only 5% of Android users bother with anything outside the Google Play Store; this figure will be even less on iOS. Its nothing to worry about.

5% of 1.8 Billion active iOS users is still 90 Million users that will be open to malware and **** due to them having sideloaded some ******** apps. That a lot.

 

[symphony]

It’s time to pull out of Earth with your Apple Park spaceship, Apple

 

[siddavis]

I assume you also don’t install anything on your laptop either?

You also assume that they wouldn't choose a closed system for their laptop.

 

[xpxp2002]

So you are on the side of gaslighting the public to achieve your aims? Apple will still operate the App Store and the majority of developers will still use it simply because doing everything yourself is a massive hassle. This is the current reality on Android.

I don't know what that means.

Not if Apple pulls out. If they shut down the App Store, all those iPhones will effectively become bricks with no updates, no new apps, no iMessage, no FaceTime, no Maps, no backups, no Apple Music.

At the end of the day, there are already millions of iPhones in the EU. Apple has a $100bn+ war chest. They'll be just fine. The EU population needs Apple to stay more than Apple needs to.

Meanwhile, people will be furious when they learn that the reason Apple couldn't continue to operate a safe and secure App Store without side loading and other threats allowed was because of dimwitted lawmakers who had no idea what they were doing.

 

[gnipgnop]

Question for the EU: if big U.S. tech companies like Apple, Google, Meta etc. are considered "gatekeepers", why would you want them to be forced to share technology with each other? Wouldn't that just lead to further entrenchment? Shouldn't the EU be worried about that encouraging collusion rather than innovation?

 

[RadioHedgeFund]

5% of 1.8 Billion active iOS users is still 90 Million users that will be open to malware and **** due to them having sideloaded some ******** apps. That a lot.

The 90m Android users that side load are the tech nerds devoted to flashing custom ROMs or still being able to natively play Fortnite.

If Apple offer sideloading (which for reference they have allowed on the Mac since the 1970’s) it will likely have safeguards in place to stop any of the above happening. This could be having to connect your iDevice to a Mac or PC to enable the process, sandboxing sideloaded apps from the rest of the OS by running them in a self-contained iOS emulator or just burying the option 6 menus deep in the settings app.

Google manage it quite well on Android as you can set it up so that only certain apps can sideload APK files thereby making sure Chrome doesn’t install anything in the background.

 

[danakin]

If this passes, Apple should just send an email and notification to every customer in the EU saying something to the effect of, “due to your government’s heavy-handed overreach, they will be blocking Apple from providing safe and secure services, like our App Store. As a result, we can no longer legally offer these services in the EU and will cease operations within 30 days.”

Just the threat of millions of devices losing iMessage, FaceTime, and the App Store framed properly will get the public on their side. I guarantee it’d turn this whole thing around within 48 hours.

Only those shorting the stock would endorse this approach.

Tim Cook would end up like Fredo if he floated this idea with sincere intent.

 

[RadioHedgeFund]

I don't know what that means.

Not if Apple pulls out. If they shut down the App Store, all those iPhones will effectively become bricks with no updates, no new apps, no iMessage, no FaceTime, no Maps, no backups, no Apple Music.

At the end of the day, there are already millions of iPhones in the EU. Apple has a $100bn+ war chest. They'll be just fine. The EU population needs Apple to stay more than Apple needs to.

Meanwhile, people will be furious when they learn that the reason Apple couldn't continue to operate a safe and secure App Store without side loading and other threats allowed was because of dimwitted lawmakers who had no idea what they were doing.

Until someone points out every Android customer already has this option and the Play Store is just as secure as the App Store.

 

[Solomani]

The EU is pretty much Nationalizing a company like Apple. There is little difference from an authoritarian nation like Putin's Russia nationalizing and essentially "taking control" of a Western corporation and dictating the company's operations within that nation.

 

[xpxp2002]

China did well when Google walked out. They developed local alternatives. Life goes on. Apple will be poorer. And remember, this will happen in Japan, Korea, USA, India, and many other countries. Apple will have to buy an island with all that cash and sell its products there. Is that what you want?

I had a lot of respect for Google when they did that.

The problems were that Google backpedaled too soon, they were offering a service not a physical product, and that China is a much larger market that was more primed to develop its own local alternatives.

So if iPhones went dead across the EU next month, you're telling me a local alternative will have a completely viable product and ecosystem ready to go in 30 days to provide free phones to every former iPhone owner in the EU? Unlikely.

 

[xpxp2002]

Until someone points out every Android customer already has this option and the Play Store is just as secure as the App Store.

It's not.

 

[RadioHedgeFund]

Question for the EU: if big U.S. tech companies like Apple, Google, Meta etc. are considered "gatekeepers", why would you want them to be forced to share technology with each other? Wouldn't that just lead to further entrenchment? Shouldn't the EU be worried about that encouraging collusion rather than innovation?

It’s more that the internet was built on the development of open standards like HTML and Email and has since regressed into closed-off ecosystems. The desktop market isn’t perfect but it has functioned perfectly well without gatekeeper app stores and closed off systems for over 50 years. There is no reason why the mobile market isn’t the same. Apple allowing the installation of anything you want on a Mac whilst blocking it on the iPhone is hypocritical and entirely 100% financially motivated. If they actually cared about all the privacy propaganda they put out they’d have locked down the Mac long ago ‘in the best interests of our users’. And how would that go down?