Foo Yun Chee, writing for Reuters:
EU industry chief Thierry Breton on Tuesday called on Apple (AAPL.O) CEO Tim Cook to open up the iPhone maker's fiercely guarded ecosystem of hardware and software to rivals.
Breton's comments came after meeting Cook in Brussels.
"The next job for Apple and other Big Tech, under the DMA (Digital Markets Act) is to open up its gates to competitors," Breton told Reuters.
"Be it the electronic wallet, browsers or app stores, consumers using an Apple iPhone should be able to benefit from competitive services by a range of providers," he said.
If you thought the EU would stop at demanding Apple use USB-C on the iPhone, think again. Whatever role you think governments should have in regulating companies like Apple, what the EU is increasingly demanding is an incredibly high level of control over iOS. All of the things Breton is “suggesting” Apple do might seem superficially good for customers. That’s certainly how they’ll sell these policy proposals when they try to enforce them against Apple.
What they’ll never tell you is the real impact this will have on the iPhone experience or with iOS security. The latter is what particularly worries me as an Apple customer.
It’s also reductive to lay the blame for this entirely at the feet of power-hungry EU politicians, though they certainly deserve a lot of this. This is also undoubtedly being done at the behest of other companies who want Apple to be forced to do business with them on terms that are less favorable to Apple than they otherwise would be, and the constituents of these politicians will never have a clear picture of how much money changed hands between these special interests and the politicians passing these laws.
I share 200% of your point of view and fears about the security of IOS and devices if they are open to accessible to all. No competitor is as important as the security and reliability that Apple puts at the service of its customers and products.
The 30% cut is so deceptive. It sounds bad so that’s what the press reports, but it’s really a lot more nuanced. Apple is NOT ripping people off.