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Sorry, Alex, as an EU user, I want the protections the EU gives me. I am annoyed with Apple delying products, but I would still rather have the protections.
My wife is a complete non-technical person, but she announces at family gatherings, parties, company social events etc. that nobody has her permission to upload photos or videos of her to social media - and that is legally binding here.
Back around 2018 she came to me to “de-google” her Android phone. After a couple of years of that becoming increasingly more difficult (rooting wasn’t an option, as she uses a banking app), in the end it became so difficult that we switched to Apple.
I really like Apple products - I have an MBP M4 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro, AirPods Pro, iPad Air M2, Apple TV and HomePod minis, at work I use an MBA M4, iPad Air M2 and iPhone 14… I still use some Linux stuff and I am an IT manager running a Windows ecosystem, but I still prefer Apple.
But, no, I don’t want the EU to capitulate, I want Apple to stop being a whiny baby and pull their act together. The whole DMA debacle is of their own making, the EU tried with a light touch for over a decade and Apple stood there like a petulant child refusing to listen, when they were told that what they were doing was unfair and they were bullying the other kids.
The alternative App Store debacle could have quietly disappeared without a trace. Probably 1% of users even know about the concept and probably not many more of them would use an alt App Store, so did Apple go and quietly let it in under the radar? Did they allow apps to use alternative payment methods as well as ApplePay? No. Did they let alt Stores appear with little fanfare, so they sank into oblivion? No. What did they do? They went out and got the biggest fraggin’ Streisand spotlight they could find and shined it on themselves! That has been their MO the whole time.
They are the robber baron standing there, putting all their users’ cookies in their pockets, whilst saying look over there, look at those nasty people who want your last cookie!
Their malicious compliance doesn’t make any sense either, they are picking the most ridiculous hills to die on.
iPhone Mirroring, they said that it may go against the DMA, the EC could force them to open it up to Android… Only, the Mac is an open platform and Android already has the backend built in to do this, so it just needs Google, Samsung, Oppo or whoever to implement a small app on the Mac that talks to the phone and displays the information on the Mac screen.
Live Translation… The EC could make us share it with other headset manufacturers. Here, I don’t understand the argument at all. The feature doesn’t even work on all current Apple headsets, let alone previous generations or Beats headsets. Apple can demonstrably prove that it doesn’t work on other hardware, and there is nothing to stop other headset manufacturers developing their own systems and companion apps for iOS or macOS. If Live Translation worked on Apple wired Buds, AirPods 1 through 4, first generation AirPods Pro and the AirPods Pro Max, then there would be an argument that they could let it work on 3rd party headsets, but it specifically works on 2 models out of over 5 models currently on sale and it doesn’t work on their Beats range either.
The worst part is, it just make Apple look silly, there is no definitive statement for any of the features they don’t bring to the EU, there is no “we can’t do this because of the DMA,” or “the EU has said we can’t do this,” it is all could, maybe, possibly, it just makes them look petty and as if they are holding their users hostage and want the users to rebel against the DMA, they will more likely see the users rebel against Apple, if they aren’t careful.
As an EU Apple user, what do I want? I want Apple to see sense. I don’t want the alternative App Stores, I want ApplePay to be available in all apps as an option, but I also want to be able to use an alternative, if I trust the 3rd party, for example, I want to simply buy ebooks or audio books in my Audible and Kindle apps using my Amazon account, because I already have a payment relationship with them, but I want to use ApplePay for the subscriptions to games or smaller apps, where I don’t know if I can trust the third party with the payment transaction or to cancel the subscription when I want. I want the flexibility to chose.
But Apple has pushed back so hard that the only way to see them make sense was to threaten them with regulation, but instead of making a few small concessions to make everybody happy, they doubled down and said, “we bet you won’t go through with this!” And now they are standing there looking stunned and whining like a baby that has had its lolly stolen.
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