iPadOS Identified as Digital 'Gatekeeper' Under New EU Tech Rules

[Populus]

What I don’t like from all this DMA thing, and how Apple approached it, is that those apps published on third party App Stores cannot be published on Apple’s App Store.

Now that Delta is coming to iPad, I had hopes that the dev could put the iPad version on the European App Store… but it seems we’ll still have to install the Alt Store. And I probably won’t do that.

 

[MNGR]

What's next, forcing them to make it run android ?

yes

 

[mystery hill]

just to download an app that americans get for free from the app store. wow.

The only reason that game emulators are allowed on the App Store now is because of the EU and DMA.

 

[madeirabhoy]

The only reason that game emulators are allowed on the App Store now is because of the EU and DMA.

entirely true. but nonetheless not on my portuguese app store. thankfully creating a non eu appleid is easy so i got it from the uk store. the idea of being happy that i have a more convoluted way of doing it, isnt something that makes sense to me.

 

[wanha]

Hey EU, I think you should classify Spotify as a digital gatekeeper of music (because they are).

Then use the DMA to force Spotify to allow musicians to distribute their music through the platform for free.

Who cares about compensation for the entity that creates, maintains, or develops the platform? Hint: it's not the EU

 

[ItsASpider]

This looks like a strawman argument. The discussion is not about playing Nintendo games or Xbox or vice versa.

It's also worth nothing that, you can, in fact, play Nintendo (and PlayStation) games on an Xbox through emulation.

 

[madeirabhoy]

I don't get why its so hard to understand why some of us wants to install whatever iOS app some developer have written, on the device that we have already paid Apple for. People are talking here as if Apple paid us to use the device.

We paid for the device. We want to do what we want with the device we paid. We like the look and feel of the hardware and the OS, why we bought it. Doesn't mean we want to pay for prison guards to barr us from doing what we want with said hardware and OS.

Its not quantum physics, why is it so hard to understand?

thats part of what i pay apple for, for a closed system where the apple app store is the one easy, generally mostly safe, place to get everything. if i wanted an open coral of different stores, and worrying about the authenticity of apps on sites i would have bought an android phone.

yes, on the one hand, its better that we now can get emulators. on the other, those in the EU have to put up with what is in practice an inferior situation, so that non EU users can get the better experience.

 

[ItsASpider]

Hey EU, I think you should classify Spotify as a digital gatekeeper of music.

Then use the DMA to force Spotify to allow musicians to distribute their music through the platform for free.

Who cares about compensations for the entity that creates, maintains, or develops the platform? Certainly not you.

Apple does get compensatiton for being the creators, maintainers and developers of the platform. You pay for their devices, developers pay to be in the app store. And it is in Apples own interest to maintain its own platform.

Artists can go to whatever platform they want, heck, that's exactly what they do. How many artists do you know that are exclusive to 1 streaming service? You know why that is? Healthy competition. Something Apple hates because it cannot compete with that under its current rules, which is exactly why they recently loosened up on so many rules (allowing game streaming, emulators, etc.): because if they maintained those rules, people would go and use the new alternatives the EU is helping create.

thats part of what i pay apple for, for a closed system where the apple app store is the one easy, generally mostly safe, place to get everything. if i wanted an open coral of different stores, and worrying about the authenticity of apps on sites i would have bought an android phone.

yes, on the one hand, its better that we now can get emulators. on the other, those in the EU have to put up with what is in practice an inferior situation, so that non EU users can get the better experience.

...which you can still have. You aren't forced to use other stores. And that "inferior" situation is one entirely of Apples own making. There is nothing in the laws that prevent them from letting other app stores work just as their own.

 

[wanha]

Anyone with an IQ of 75+ saw this coming (even Apple). Apple is just playing the long con, trying to milk as much out of their platforms as possible before they need to fully comply with the DMA.

Anyone with an IQ of 85+ would realize that all retail works exactly like Apple.

Want to sell your own products at a shopping mall or the local super market and keep 100% of the money?

Go try it and report back how it goes.

(What I suspect you will find that not only is that the super market's take is not 0%, but that it's also not 30%. It's more than that.)

 

[Anaxarxes]

EU has laws of anti-competitiveness. You can argue that Apple's closed ecosystem is secure and good and even better for the developers on most scenarios but EU is a region of equity.

So, developers have to have more than 1 choice to represent their apps on a platform. When you control the majority of the market, you become a controller aka gatekeeper when you offer one business model.

Apple already agreed to offer choice in iOS and they would have to do this in watchOS, iPadOS and if the market size is large enough even with tvOS.

What Apple should be doing is just go with the flow - use a macOS style approach.

• Closed source OS tightly working with Apple hardware
• Multiple marketplaces, Multiple ways of installing software

If Apple keeps their game high with the App Store and make it competitive in terms of tools, resources, analytics, security, better or comparable shares to developers; consumers and developers will choose App Store anyway.

Just make is best, not mandatory.

 

[wanha]

Apple does get compensatiton for being the creators, maintainers and developers of the platform. You pay for their devices, developers pay to be in the app store. And it is in Apples own interest to maintain its own platform.

Artists can go to whatever platform they want, heck, that's exactly what they do. How many artists do you know that are exclusive to 1 streaming service? You know why that is? Healthy competition. Something Apple hates because it cannot compete with that under its current rules, which is exactly why they recently loosened up on so many rules (allowing game streaming, emulators, etc.): because if they maintained those rules, people would go and use the new alternatives the EU is helping create.



...which you can still have. You aren't forced to use other stores. And that "inferior" situation is one entirely of Apples own making. There is nothing in the laws that prevent them from letting other app stores work just as their own.

Are you suggesting that if company A sells a HW product, it is not allowed to charge for any add-on SW or service to that product?

And if not, please explain why Apple must legally be limited to only charging money for the hardware.

 

[BiscottiGelato]

thats part of what i pay apple for, for a closed system where the apple app store is the one easy, generally mostly safe, place to get everything. if i wanted an open coral of different stores, and worrying about the authenticity of apps on sites i would have bought an android phone.

yes, on the one hand, its better that we now can get emulators. on the other, those in the EU have to put up with what is in practice an inferior situation, so that non EU users can get the better experience.

You can always use the App Store. Why does that have to preclude me from using Apps outside of the App Store? How communistic is it that everyone MUST do what you deem as ‘safe’?

 

[truthsteve]

Protecting from what? For 17 years Apple has dictated on over a billion users that they can only install apps that Apple approves. That's not protecting, that's gatekeeping, and it is just criminal considering no other major Mobile or Desktop OS does that.

for almost 40 years, Nintendo has dictated about a billion users that they can only install/use apps/games that Nintendo approves. yet Nintendo is free to do this. sounds like EU arbitrary drew the line just so that Apple would be included.

 

[Jim Lahey]

EU should do something useful like going after notches in laptops.

 

[truthsteve]

The rules haven't been changed...

the rules were changed to the point where Apple cannot do what they want to do with iPadOS previously...

 

[WiiDSmoker]

I don't get why its so hard to understand why some of us wants to install whatever iOS app some developer have written, on the device that we have already paid Apple for. People are talking here as if Apple paid us to use the device.

We paid for the device. We want to do what we want with the device we paid. We like the look and feel of the hardware and the OS, why we bought it. Doesn't mean we want to pay for prison guards to barr us from doing what we want with said hardware and OS.

Its not quantum physics, why is it so hard to understand?

They think Apple is their friend and must protect at all cost!

 

[contacos]

lmao just keep changing the rules. yeah sure lets see how this plays out

may as well design your own device, eu

There is no change of rules? the whole point of the DMA is to keep checking if additional businesses fall under the category of a Gatekeeper. It's not a once and done thing at all.

 

[.wojtek]

You gotta love the EU 🤎

lmao just keep changing the rules. yeah sure lets see how this plays out

Directive passed and as such is a law and doesn't change. Pleas inform yourself how things work (legislature, executive, etc)...

I feel like I have no power in EU. Who am I supposed to vote for to not have this **** happen?

Vote Konga - they look like you cup of tea xD

 

[Darth Tulhu]

I wonder if Apple can/would implement a software mode where it's one or the other: free OR secure.

And once you choose, you can't go back without a complete reset.

And free mode means the user would agree to absolve Apple of ANY consequences that ensue.

So basically, allow Android on the iPad which locks you out of ALL Apple apps that aren't cross platform.

 

[raythompsontn]

This is nothing more than a group of countries finding a way to fine Apple. Such money from the fine going into the country’s coffers. Apple should just no longer sell any IOS device in the EU. Then the outraged citizens can vote the clowns out of office.

 

[AlexESP]

Protecting from what? For 17 years Apple has dictated on over a billion users that they can only install apps that Apple approves. That's not protecting, that's gatekeeping, and it is just criminal considering no other major Mobile or Desktop OS does that.

And that’s a defining factor of a product that has very high levels of customer satisfaction. They could have also decided that no one can develop and install apps at all, only stock ones. There is nothing criminal with taking decisions that make a product incredibly popular.

 

[purplerainpurplerain]

The European Union (EU) is structured with multiple levels of accountability, including its parliamentary elections, where citizens directly elect the European Parliament members. Additionally, national governments, elected by citizens, are represented in the European Council and the Council of the EU, influencing EU policy and decision-making processes.

That’s like saying politicians are totally not bought and have no financial interests just because they are elected.

I’m pro EU but everything about it sucks. They pretend to be left wing and progressive but everything we see is more crime, more illegals taking jobs or working as actual slaves across the continent, more drug trafficking, and more money laundering from Asia buying up all the properties in many cities.

If they were so successful why is the far right growing? Why are they demanding weaker security for mobile devices? Is the main beneficiary the crooks who will exploit our devices and pay them a cut of the profits?

Why were they happy to accept the Kremlin’s dirty money across the continent for so many years and then realize whooops that was a bad idea?

The parliament building probably still stinks like a crack house after all these years.

Reporters find cocaine in EU parliament

Significant amounts of cocaine have been found in the European parliament, German undercover reporters claim.

www.theguardian.com

 

[klasma]

I feel like I have no power in EU. Who am I supposed to vote for to not have this **** happen?

How about you look up who voted for and against the DMA? It's not that difficult.

 

[AlexESP]

this doesn't hurt the platform in any way. it hurts the profitability of the platform, which doesn't affect users like you or me.

This does hurt the platform. Apple created the iPad in a certain way, by making decisions that might be right or wrong; it seems like people really liked those decisions, but now in the EU they think they know better than us customers what we really want.

 

[contacos]

Hey EU, I think you should classify Spotify as a digital gatekeeper of music.

Then use the DMA to force Spotify to allow musicians to distribute their music through the platform for free.

Who cares about compensation for the entity that creates, maintains, or develops the platform? Hint: it's not the EU

Eh in that context the gatekeeper would actually be the three (?) major record labels. You almost have no choice but to sign with them if you want to "be anything" unless your name is Taylor Swift. Everyone else has to bite in the sour apple (is that also a saying in English?) and sign and give up your rights to those labels, putting them up on the streaming services, even if you do not necessarily agree with it or those terms. Oh and dont forget the share those labels take!