The EU DOES NOT LIKE AMERICANS, they are using the legal system as a bullying tactic to gain the upper hand to gouge money. If Steve Jobs was still alive, he would stop all operations in the EU, and every one in the EU will lose out. They will have to find alternatives. Shut down the EU App Store. If it goes to trial. I hope apple wins….. there aren’t that many mobile OS’s out there. With the exception of Linux.
Most decidedly wrong. But the EU follows a different legal philosophy in areas like privacy (which is way more relevant in the EU) and antitrust regulation. EU antitrust cares about competition and fairnis between companies while US antitrust mostly cares about customer pricing.
That's how e.g. Apple Books was victim of US antitrust ruling quite badly even though based on EU philosophy Apple Books was doing a lot of good for competition.
... and still the EU let a lot of things through the US did wrong: Like spying on political leaders as Edward Snowden proved to the world. The US Cloud Act, which essentially kills EU privacy rules for Cloud customers of US Cloud Services, like the recent Biden Inflation protection Act (ok that remains to be seen).
If the EU care more about consumer privacy, then they would not be forcing CSAM scanning on EU companies. Which would put an end to End to End Encryption in the EU. Truthfully, the EU only care more about consumers privacy when it pertains to a third party accessing consumers private data. They have a lot less concern about privacy when it's the government accessing consumers private data. Here in the US, we have the 4th Amendment to prevent government from over reaching their authorities over its citizens.
As for competition, the EU don't get that in order to have "fair" competition, there's going to be "unfairness". The EU would rather a force a company that innovates, to share their innovations with its competitors, than for them to use it to compete and maybe eliminate their competitors. That how "fairness" works in the EU.
Back in 2013, there were 5 main mobile OSes. Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows, iOS and Android. With iOS and Android having the smaller market share. It was competition that led us to iOS and Android having over 90% of the mobile OS market share. That's because the consumers overwhelmingly chose the innovations they got from using iOS and Android. Should the EU back in 2013, had forced Apple and Google to share their innovations with its competitors, for the sake of "competition"? If the EU forces every company to be "fair" when competing and don't allow them to have any competitive advantages, then there is no "competition". And why would companies innovate to gain a competitive advantage, if in the end, they must give away their innovations to their competitors, because the EU thinks that its only "fair".
Nothing from 2013 is remotely comparable to 2023 in digital lifestyle terms. The reason for that is the digital backbone infrastructure which makes truly digital lives possible today on a wide scale.
Back in 2013, devices were smaller, more mobile versions of our PCs and mostly single user setups. Infrastructure was key to moving more users online for more time and for more everyday tasks.
In 2023, mobile devices have substituted most of them (or made them unnecessary) for our 'digital' lives and the lack of OS competition has been accentuated by the 'gatekeeper' status of the two main OSs which serves to protect and perpetuate their interests. Those interests are what lead companies like Apple et al to try and limit competition and as digital services become an even greater part of our digital lifestyles, they also become a bigger target for legislation.
The response is the same:
When you are not a monopoly in any market, you are always faced with designing something to keep up with the competition. Apple over the years hasn’t run to the government crying to solve their problems. When you are not a monopoly the greater market will not support the Apple platform, currently that greater market is not supporting the Apple platform when it comes to AAA games should Apple complain to the EU or the United States government to get everybody else to play fair?
Safari was created because if they had not, Apple would have been relegated to the back end of the computing age, the same thing applies to the Apple retail store, Apple Maps, iMessage, Apple Pay and the Apple Watch. It also extends to the M series SOC/CPU they designed, when you’re not a monopoly in any market and you’re a vertical computer company, you can’t sit back and allow other companies to determine your future or or wait for them to support you. Apple strategy is the build a better product they do not whine for government support like their competition.
Notice that when each one of those Apple products became successful, the crying ensued. It’s not fair it’s not fair, but at the time of their introduction, the financial analyst’s and the tech analyst’s made fun of it, but they’re not laughing anymore. The tech one percent, want a deck reshuffle because their first strategy is to lobby for government help and not roll up their sleeves and try to innovate.
Times change. We are talking about 'gatekeepers' now.
Gatekeepers, especially by EU definition, can abuse their dominance and impede natural competition in the market.
Legislation changes too - to meet those challenges.
This is actually now demonstrable as seen with the fall in Huawei handset sales in the EU due to the lack of GMS. A brand with superior hardware and underlying technology in many areas is actually being held back through not being able to offer GMS on its phones. Competition is being stifled artificially.
Huawei is a notable exception (in the mid to long term) in this case as it has the resources and knowhow to bring its own HMS to market and is doing so.
Other companies (the vast majority in fact) are simply unable to compete because of the gatekeeper position of Google and to a lesser extent, Apple. In global platform terms. Within iDevice land, Apple is just as much a gatekeeper as Google and abuses its position in exactly the same ways.
It is highly likely though, that Apple would not be immune to losing GMS on its devices but that kind of situation would put Google squarely between the crosshairs of every government investigative board on the planet so that isn't going to happen.
As @Davidw points out, what exactly is this dominant market position they’re supposedly abusing? From here it just looks like the EU found a cash cow and they’re determined to milk it. Accusing a company of monopoly abuse when it commands less than 1/4th of the market is patently absurd.
avon b7 said: This is actually now demonstrable as seen with the fall in Huawei handset sales in the EU due to the lack of GMS. A brand with superior hardware and underlying technology in many areas is actually being held back through not being able to offer GMS on its phones. Competition is being stifled artificially.
LOL..."superior hardware and underlying technology"...you've shown your cards with that one.
avon b7 said: Within iDevice land, Apple is just as much a gatekeeper as Google and abuses its position in exactly the same ways.
Apple is only a "gatekeeper" for its own IP.
They created their own mobile OS that was based on their desktop OS. They created their own mobile hardware instead of licensing the OS to 3rd parties just like they do with desktop/laptops. They created their own mobile SoC. They created their own App Store. It's all Apple's IP. Does Google work that way? No.
avon b7 said: This is actually now demonstrable as seen with the fall in Huawei handset sales in the EU due to the lack of GMS. A brand with superior hardware and underlying technology in many areas is actually being held back through not being able to offer GMS on its phones. Competition is being stifled artificially.
LOL..."superior hardware and underlying technology"...you've shown your cards with that one.
Well, it isn't my card, but the card.
Huawei has arguably brought more underlying and consumer front facing technology to the handset market in many key areas than most device makers (I'm including Apple here).
Wifi advances, LTE advances, antenna design, SoC design (SoC not only CPU/GPU), camera technology (all aspects from lens, ISPs to sensors), battery design, chemistry and charging, materials (like Kunlun glass), AI, file systems (the latest version of Android has adopted a system designed by Huawei), biometrics (bone voice ID) etc.
The latest earbuds release (next month?) is rumoured to be able to measure your heart rate. We'll see. A Huawei official has confirmed that they have a continuous glucose monitor in the pipeline too.
Those technologies were the fruit of incessant R&D investments the world over.
It's why Huawei receives more from patent licencing than it pays out. Apple is rumored to licence almost 800 Huawei patents.
Basically in every key area of a handset and far beyond. IoT, automation (industrial and commercial), solar, infrastructure (aviation, ports, rail, health), autonomous driving...
Those advances are now appearing in device software at an OS level.
The last time I checked Huawei was researching to find solutions to some of the world's biggest unresolved technical challenges in computing. Problems that have existed for decades. I think there were three or four 'biggies', two of which have been cracked. Getting through Shannon's limit and advancing beyond Von Neumann architecture.
Later this month Huawei will exhibit the most important mobile technology event on the planet (MWC Barcelona) and has booked the largest stand in the history of the conference. An absolutely gigantic space and will be presenting a broad swathe of its technology base.
The latest folding phone might make an appearance too. Again, we'll see.
I'm not sure if these links (.Pdf) are still live but if you have an interest in science and technology, have a read...
The EU DOES NOT LIKE AMERICANS, they are using the legal system as a bullying tactic to gain the upper hand to gouge money. If Steve Jobs was still alive, he would stop all operations in the EU, and every one in the EU will lose out. They will have to find alternatives. Shut down the EU App Store. If it goes to trial. I hope apple wins….. there aren’t that many mobile OS’s out there. With the exception of Linux.
I think you need to broaden your horizons a little bit. Most of the EU's behavior can best be described by Hanlon's Razor . If you look at many of the laws that the EU has passed in the last 10 years and the [self-created] problems that we have seen in the last few years (Corona, Energy crises, Immigration, Brexit, etc.) the main driver for such action is clear.
The statement that SJ would leave the EU merits no further comment.
40 BILLION? That's fucking insane. How much money does Apple Pay even make Apple? I think it's almost negligent. It's more of a value added feature for their ecosystem.
Pure insanity. Meanwhile companies that engage in actual egregious shit get no punishments, or pathetic slaps on the wrist.
In return for Apple paying $40 billion, we should tell Europe to pay us $4 trillion for NATO or else we let Putin roll his tanks into Paris.
Equally short sighted and blindly 'Murica First as a bonus.
So many companies have shameless copied the iPhone, now Apple is accused to setup a system for only themselves ???
Irony, they name is Governments.
Let's face it. Apple Pay is just an implementation of a common standard (Google pay ist Googles implementation of that same standard). So it's not really copying anything from Apple in that case. In this case it needs to use a piece of iPhone hardware that has been limited by Apple. There is merit in that complaint.
Apple has implemented ApplePay in a way that dictates that NFC payment activity needs to go through it. Banks want to save a few percent by using their own payment systems with Apple's NFC chip. They want this chip to be agnostic. There is likely some merit as @humbug1873 writes. How much and what changes will have to take place to lower the bar for competitors will have to be decided. Likely this EU court will err on the side of letting local competition dance on a foreign company's IP, but this is again likely not malicious, just short sighted and poorly executed like many EU laws.
In the end the fine likely won't be so large and Apple will agree to make some minor adjustments in the next 5 years. See the Apple involved Ireland v Commission from just a few years ago.
Mr. Benz I bought a Porsche because I wanted a Porsche. I didn’t buy it to get a Mercedes, BMW, Tesla, Corvette or a Dodge Demon. I don’t expect it to behave-be like most other cars out there that was my choice up front. The same is true with buying an Apple device I bought it because of the characteristics and the way it performed, I do not want a Windows computer nor do I want an Android phone and I do not care to change either one of those particular platforms to suit me through government edict.
I just don’t think they’re very good choices personally, unless someone else, the company that you work for is paying for it particularly if you have to use AutoCad, Navis, and Revit. Which was my experience work, and no matter how good Apple designs, their computers, their iPad or the iPhone those three programs won’t work on the Mac platform in any significant way (Autodesk decision which is their right). Should Apple protest to the USA government or the EU to get a handout? Make a claim that Autodesk is a gate keeper/monopoly.
avon b7 said: This is actually now demonstrable as seen with the fall in Huawei handset sales in the EU due to the lack of GMS. A brand with superior hardware and underlying technology in many areas is actually being held back through not being able to offer GMS on its phones. Competition is being stifled artificially.
LOL..."superior hardware and underlying technology"...you've shown your cards with that one.
Why do people waste time responding to this POS troll? Block him and don’t give him the satisfaction trolls desire by posting this trash.
The EU is really grasping with this one. First by claiming Apple is dominant and secondly by thinking they’re entitled to a whopping $40 billion from Apple over what’s a trivial issue. This speaks volumes as to the motives of the EU. They’re not about passing laws that help consumers. They’re looking a US tech companies as a source of billions in revenue.
avon b7 said: This is actually now demonstrable as seen with the fall in Huawei handset sales in the EU due to the lack of GMS. A brand with superior hardware and underlying technology in many areas is actually being held back through not being able to offer GMS on its phones. Competition is being stifled artificially.
LOL..."superior hardware and underlying technology"...you've shown your cards with that one.
Why do people waste time responding to this POS troll? Block him and don’t give him the satisfaction trolls desire by posting this trash.
The EU is really grasping with this one. First by claiming Apple is dominant and secondly by thinking they’re entitled to a whopping $40 billion from Apple over what’s a trivial issue. This speaks volumes as to the motives of the EU. They’re not about passing laws that help consumers. They’re looking a US tech companies as a source of billions in revenue.
I posted links. From the sources.
You posted nothing of informational, or any other value.
When you block someone. You block them. Even if they are quoted by someone else, you have no need to read the quote. Just ignore!
You should practice what you preach and if you can't do that, at least offer up something of reasonable fact or balanced opinion.
avon b7 said: This is actually now demonstrable as seen with the fall in Huawei handset sales in the EU due to the lack of GMS. A brand with superior hardware and underlying technology in many areas is actually being held back through not being able to offer GMS on its phones. Competition is being stifled artificially.
LOL..."superior hardware and underlying technology"...you've shown your cards with that one.
Well, it isn't my card, but the card.
Huawei has arguably brought more underlying and consumer front facing technology to the handset market in many key areas than most device makers (I'm including Apple here).
Wifi advances, LTE advances, antenna design, SoC design (SoC not only CPU/GPU), camera technology (all aspects from lens, ISPs to sensors), battery design, chemistry and charging, materials (like Kunlun glass), AI, file systems (the latest version of Android has adopted a system designed by Huawei), biometrics (bone voice ID) etc.
The latest earbuds release (next month?) is rumoured to be able to measure your heart rate. We'll see. A Huawei official has confirmed that they have a continuous glucose monitor in the pipeline too.
Those technologies were the fruit of incessant R&D investments the world over.
It's why Huawei receives more from patent licencing than it pays out. Apple is rumored to licence almost 800 Huawei patents.
Basically in every key area of a handset and far beyond. IoT, automation (industrial and commercial), solar, infrastructure (aviation, ports, rail, health), autonomous driving...
Those advances are now appearing in device software at an OS level.
The last time I checked Huawei was researching to find solutions to some of the world's biggest unresolved technical challenges in computing. Problems that have existed for decades. I think there were three or four 'biggies', two of which have been cracked. Getting through Shannon's limit and advancing beyond Von Neumann architecture.
Later this month Huawei will exhibit the most important mobile technology event on the planet (MWC Barcelona) and has booked the largest stand in the history of the conference. An absolutely gigantic space and will be presenting a broad swathe of its technology base.
The latest folding phone might make an appearance too. Again, we'll see.
I'm not sure if these links (.Pdf) are still live but if you have an interest in science and technology, have a read...
For sure Huawei will survive and be very profitable with just the support from consumers in China.
Why is it that a tech company outside the EU can find ways to still be innovative and profitable without using any of Google and Apple IP. While tech companies in the EU cry to their government like babies, when ever they can't use Google and Apple IP .... for free. Maybe if the EU quit being a nanny-state to its own companies and force them to compete like grown-ups, they too might be as innovative as Huawei.
So many companies have shameless copied the iPhone, now Apple is accused to setup a system for only themselves ???
Irony, they name is Governments.
When it comes to abuse of a dominant market position, using said market position to get leverage in new markets is a big no-no.
I hope Apple loses this one, so other payment providers also can use the NFC capability. I really don't like Apple getting the ability to keep a cut on everything we spend
Maybe it has been a while since going over the ApplePay developer docs and what not; but I don’t recall that the developer is charged with a fee from using ApplePay, any sort of fees come from the credit card companies. As such, it seems to me like the EU is making a false claim here. Are they going after Google for GooglePay? What about Samsung and their SamsungPay? Wait, what about WalmartPay (which I can do from my iPhone)?
This seems like complete bullsh*t, if you ask me.
I don't think they're "after Apple Pay" from reading the article. The complaint seems to be about Apple not allowing other payment providers access to the iPhone's NFC without involving Apple Pay.
avon b7 said: This is actually now demonstrable as seen with the fall in Huawei handset sales in the EU due to the lack of GMS. A brand with superior hardware and underlying technology in many areas is actually being held back through not being able to offer GMS on its phones. Competition is being stifled artificially.
LOL..."superior hardware and underlying technology"...you've shown your cards with that one.
Well, it isn't my card, but the card.
Huawei has arguably brought more underlying and consumer front facing technology to the handset market in many key areas than most device makers (I'm including Apple here).
Wifi advances, LTE advances, antenna design, SoC design (SoC not only CPU/GPU), camera technology (all aspects from lens, ISPs to sensors), battery design, chemistry and charging, materials (like Kunlun glass), AI, file systems (the latest version of Android has adopted a system designed by Huawei), biometrics (bone voice ID) etc.
The latest earbuds release (next month?) is rumoured to be able to measure your heart rate. We'll see. A Huawei official has confirmed that they have a continuous glucose monitor in the pipeline too.
Those technologies were the fruit of incessant R&D investments the world over.
It's why Huawei receives more from patent licencing than it pays out. Apple is rumored to licence almost 800 Huawei patents.
Basically in every key area of a handset and far beyond. IoT, automation (industrial and commercial), solar, infrastructure (aviation, ports, rail, health), autonomous driving...
Those advances are now appearing in device software at an OS level.
The last time I checked Huawei was researching to find solutions to some of the world's biggest unresolved technical challenges in computing. Problems that have existed for decades. I think there were three or four 'biggies', two of which have been cracked. Getting through Shannon's limit and advancing beyond Von Neumann architecture.
Later this month Huawei will exhibit the most important mobile technology event on the planet (MWC Barcelona) and has booked the largest stand in the history of the conference. An absolutely gigantic space and will be presenting a broad swathe of its technology base.
The latest folding phone might make an appearance too. Again, we'll see.
I'm not sure if these links (.Pdf) are still live but if you have an interest in science and technology, have a read...
For sure Huawei will survive and be very profitable with just the support from consumers in China.
Why is it that a tech company outside the EU can find ways to still be innovative and profitable without using any of Google and Apple IP. While tech companies in the EU cry to their government like babies, when ever they can't use Google and Apple IP .... for free. Maybe if the EU quit being a nanny-state to its own companies and force them to compete like grown-ups, they too might be as innovative as Huawei.
No one is crying like babies in the EU and the main complainant in this case seems to be PayPal.
It is true that 'conglomerates' like Huawei or Samsung do not exist in the EU but if they did, I wouldn't be surprised to see them scrutinised in the same way big tech is being scrutinised now.
Philips comes close to that definition and, wouldn't you know, got whacked with what was (at the time) the biggest EU fine in history. That for price fixing.
Let's not forget that the EU forced the big EU ICT companies to open up and allow for competition to flourish. It has.
The result is that telecom infrastructure here is way, way more competitive than in the US. Both in pricing and capacity.
The same has happened with energy providers, rail infrastructure etc.
In those days we were talking about true monopolies in the classic nationalised industry sense.
Apple needs to say nope. Your policies don’t match our business model so we won’t offer these services in your region. It’s actually why so many Apple products never make it beyond the US. It’s just not worthy the effort.
They should label those countries or regions Apple Hostile and many just block the App Store there. Problem solved.
Apple needs to say nope. Your policies don’t match our business model so we won’t offer these services in your region. It’s actually why so many Apple products never make it beyond the US. It’s just not worthy the effort.
They should label those countries or regions Apple Hostile and many just block the App Store there. Problem solved.
So many companies have shameless copied the iPhone, now Apple is accused to setup a system for only themselves ???
Irony, they name is Governments.
When it comes to abuse of a dominant market position, using said market position to get leverage in new markets is a big no-no.
I hope Apple loses this one, so other payment providers also can use the NFC capability. I really don't like Apple getting the ability to keep a cut on everything we spend
The EU DOES NOT LIKE AMERICANS, they are using the legal system as a bullying tactic to gain the upper hand to gouge money. If Steve Jobs was still alive, he would stop all operations in the EU, and every one in the EU will lose out. They will have to find alternatives. Shut down the EU App Store. If it goes to trial. I hope apple wins….. there aren’t that many mobile OS’s out there. With the exception of Linux.
Most decidedly wrong. But the EU follows a different legal philosophy in areas like privacy (which is way more relevant in the EU) and antitrust regulation. EU antitrust cares about competition and fairnis between companies while US antitrust mostly cares about customer pricing.
That's how e.g. Apple Books was victim of US antitrust ruling quite badly even though based on EU philosophy Apple Books was doing a lot of good for competition.
... and still the EU let a lot of things through the US did wrong: Like spying on political leaders as Edward Snowden proved to the world. The US Cloud Act, which essentially kills EU privacy rules for Cloud customers of US Cloud Services, like the recent Biden Inflation protection Act (ok that remains to be seen).
If the EU care more about consumer privacy, then they would not be forcing CSAM scanning on EU companies. Which would put an end to End to End Encryption in the EU. Truthfully, the EU only care more about consumers privacy when it pertains to a third party accessing consumers private data. They have a lot less concern about privacy when it's the government accessing consumers private data. Here in the US, we have the 4th Amendment to prevent government from over reaching their authorities over its citizens.
As for competition, the EU don't get that in order to have "fair" competition, there's going to be "unfairness". The EU would rather a force a company that innovates, to share their innovations with its competitors, than for them to use it to compete and maybe eliminate their competitors. That how "fairness" works in the EU.
Back in 2013, there were 5 main mobile OSes. Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows, iOS and Android. With iOS and Android having the smaller market share. It was competition that led us to iOS and Android having over 90% of the mobile OS market share. That's because the consumers overwhelmingly chose the innovations they got from using iOS and Android. Should the EU back in 2013, had forced Apple and Google to share their innovations with its competitors, for the sake of "competition"? If the EU forces every company to be "fair" when competing and don't allow them to have any competitive advantages, then there is no "competition". And why would companies innovate to gain a competitive advantage, if in the end, they must give away their innovations to their competitors, because the EU thinks that its only "fair".
Nothing from 2013 is remotely comparable to 2023 in digital lifestyle terms. The reason for that is the digital backbone infrastructure which makes truly digital lives possible today on a wide scale.
Back in 2013, devices were smaller, more mobile versions of our PCs and mostly single user setups. Infrastructure was key to moving more users online for more time and for more everyday tasks.
In 2023, mobile devices have substituted most of them (or made them unnecessary) for our 'digital' lives and the lack of OS competition has been accentuated by the 'gatekeeper' status of the two main OSs which serves to protect and perpetuate their interests. Those interests are what lead companies like Apple et al to try and limit competition and as digital services become an even greater part of our digital lifestyles, they also become a bigger target for legislation.
In 2013, only two companies made smartphones that were already smaller versions of PC's from the get go, Apple and Google. When Microsoft CEO Ballmer heard about the iPhone, he laughed at the idea of a $599 fully subsidized phone with no keyboard. BlackBerry CEO didn't care because he thought the iPhone was a consumer toy and didn't think it would ever make it in the business world. The CEO of Nokia was quoted as saying he wasn't worry because what does a computer company know about the telecommunication business. (To which Jobs later replied .... It's much easier for a computer company to put a phone in a computer, than it is for a telecommunication company to put a computer in a phone.) What did Google do? They said "Holy shit" we need to immediately stop what were doing with Android and copy Apple. Their first Android phone that never made it, was to have a physical keyboard, before they got wind of the iPhone. That's why the first Android phone had a touch screen keyboard and came out a year after the iPhone.
The reason why our digital life is as easy as it is is because Apple got something else from PARC other than licensing their GUI. There was a banner on their wall that stated ...... "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." ( PARC Alan Key paraphrasing a famous quote by P. Drucker). Well, what PARC wasn't able to do with their inventions, Jobs and Apple did. Then Google copied Apple. Our digital life as it exist today is the result of companies like Apple and Google inventing it. Not the other way around. Apple and Google platforms, are not the results of our digital life. Our digital life did not just naturally evolve. Apple and Google just didn't happen to be in the right place and the right time. They didn't get lucky because any tech company, even one from the EU, could have been there. These tech companies invented our digital life and when the consumers saw what they had to offer, they wanted it. Or as Jobs put it ... "people don't know what they want until you show it to them." Before the iPhone, no one was sitting around thinking ... I wish I had a computer in my mobile phone. They were thinking ... why would I ever need to carry around a computer with a tiny ass screen?
You could look back 10 years to 2013 and with hindsight say that it can't compare to the digital life were living in now. But in 2013, Apple and Google could already predict what 2023 digital life was going to be like because they were going to invented it. And right now, I would rather trust Apple and Google to predict how our digital life will change in the next 10 years, rather to leave in the hands of the tech ignorant politicians in the EU government (or any government for that matter.).
The thing about our now digital life is that it's much easier with only two major mobile OS's. The Hell with trying to stir up more competition and more consumer choices. Over 85% of the World's population owns a mobile phone and already made their choice. It's either going to be iOS or Android. That's not going to change much anytime soon.( It's been over 20 years since Microsoft lost the anti-trust case against them and they still have a monopoly with 75% of the desktop OS market.) You really think our digital life would be better if businesses had to develop their free mobile apps for their customers, for 5 mobile OSes? What about game developers, you think they want to develop 5 different OS version of their games? Right now, developers only have to develop for 2 OSes, to reach over 90% of mobile users. What happens when developers stop developing for the mobile OS that you like because there's not enough consumers using it to justify their cost. It's not only consumers choice that gives them the power to determine whether an OS survives or not. Develops have even more power. Without enough apps, an OS is as good as gone. (Witness the Lumia phone by Microsoft/Nokia.)
More competition leading to more choices for consumers is not the Holy Grail you think it is.
Microsoft did behave like this when it took a terrible browser (Internet Explorer), bundled with their ubiquitous Windows OS and told HP etc. that they couldn't bundle other browsers... so Microsoft used their position within OS to win browsers. US stopped that.
Now Apple is trying to do like MS. Use the position in one area to block competition. Doing so with NFC access, app store, and demanding Webkit to be used. EU isn't blocking the use of Apple Pay - they just demand Apple to allow for competition. This is how things should be done.
Do some homework before making nonsense comments.
This is not at all like the US vs Microsoft case. Or even the EU vs Microsoft case. In those cases, Microsoft was accused of abusing the monopoly they had with Windows.
You need to abandon the notion that antitrust is about monopolies.
Antitrust is about abusing market power.
That’s all.
Holding a monopoly makes it far easier to identify abuse, of course, but — at least in Europe — it’s not that simple.
Times change. We are talking about 'gatekeepers' now.
Gatekeepers, especially by EU definition, can abuse their dominance and impede natural competition in the market.
Legislation changes too - to meet those challenges.
This is actually now demonstrable as seen with the fall in Huawei handset sales in the EU due to the lack of GMS. A brand with superior hardware and underlying technology in many areas is actually being held back through not being able to offer GMS on its phones. Competition is being stifled artificially.
Huawei is a notable exception (in the mid to long term) in this case as it has the resources and knowhow to bring its own HMS to market and is doing so.
Other companies (the vast majority in fact) are simply unable to compete because of the gatekeeper position of Google and to a lesser extent, Apple. In global platform terms. Within iDevice land, Apple is just as much a gatekeeper as Google and abuses its position in exactly the same ways.
It is highly likely though, that Apple would not be immune to losing GMS on its devices but that kind of situation would put Google squarely between the crosshairs of every government investigative board on the planet so that isn't going to happen.
Oh good god: Apple is abusing their "dominance". What dominance?
But the funniest thing you wrote is that Apple is impeding "natural" competition in the market! You, and obviously the EU, don't know what natural competition is. It's when you take your own money, time and effort to come up with something better than what is in the market. That is what's fair. And that's natural competition.
Comments
Gatekeepers, especially by EU definition, can abuse their dominance and impede natural competition in the market.
Legislation changes too - to meet those challenges.
This is actually now demonstrable as seen with the fall in Huawei handset sales in the EU due to the lack of GMS. A brand with superior hardware and underlying technology in many areas is actually being held back through not being able to offer GMS on its phones. Competition is being stifled artificially.
Huawei is a notable exception (in the mid to long term) in this case as it has the resources and knowhow to bring its own HMS to market and is doing so.
Other companies (the vast majority in fact) are simply unable to compete because of the gatekeeper position of Google and to a lesser extent, Apple. In global platform terms. Within iDevice land, Apple is just as much a gatekeeper as Google and abuses its position in exactly the same ways.
It is highly likely though, that Apple would not be immune to losing GMS on its devices but that kind of situation would put Google squarely between the crosshairs of every government investigative board on the planet so that isn't going to happen.
They created their own mobile OS that was based on their desktop OS. They created their own mobile hardware instead of licensing the OS to 3rd parties just like they do with desktop/laptops. They created their own mobile SoC. They created their own App Store. It's all Apple's IP. Does Google work that way? No.
Huawei has arguably brought more underlying and consumer front facing technology to the handset market in many key areas than most device makers (I'm including Apple here).
Wifi advances, LTE advances, antenna design, SoC design (SoC not only CPU/GPU), camera technology (all aspects from lens, ISPs to sensors), battery design, chemistry and charging, materials (like Kunlun glass), AI, file systems (the latest version of Android has adopted a system designed by Huawei), biometrics (bone voice ID) etc.
The latest earbuds release (next month?) is rumoured to be able to measure your heart rate. We'll see. A Huawei official has confirmed that they have a continuous glucose monitor in the pipeline too.
Those technologies were the fruit of incessant R&D investments the world over.
It's why Huawei receives more from patent licencing than it pays out. Apple is rumored to licence almost 800 Huawei patents.
Basically in every key area of a handset and far beyond. IoT, automation (industrial and commercial), solar, infrastructure (aviation, ports, rail, health), autonomous driving...
Those advances are now appearing in device software at an OS level.
The last time I checked Huawei was researching to find solutions to some of the world's biggest unresolved technical challenges in computing. Problems that have existed for decades. I think there were three or four 'biggies', two of which have been cracked. Getting through Shannon's limit and advancing beyond Von Neumann architecture.
Later this month Huawei will exhibit the most important mobile technology event on the planet (MWC Barcelona) and has booked the largest stand in the history of the conference. An absolutely gigantic space and will be presenting a broad swathe of its technology base.
The latest folding phone might make an appearance too. Again, we'll see.
I'm not sure if these links (.Pdf) are still live but if you have an interest in science and technology, have a read...
I just don’t think they’re very good choices personally, unless someone else, the company that you work for is paying for it particularly if you have to use AutoCad, Navis, and Revit. Which was my experience work, and no matter how good Apple designs, their computers, their iPad or the iPhone those three programs won’t work on the Mac platform in any significant way (Autodesk decision which is their right). Should Apple protest to the USA government or the EU to get a handout? Make a claim that Autodesk is a gate keeper/monopoly.
You posted nothing of informational, or any other value.
When you block someone. You block them. Even if they are quoted by someone else, you have no need to read the quote. Just ignore!
You should practice what you preach and if you can't do that, at least offer up something of reasonable fact or balanced opinion.
It is true that 'conglomerates' like Huawei or Samsung do not exist in the EU but if they did, I wouldn't be surprised to see them scrutinised in the same way big tech is being scrutinised now.
Philips comes close to that definition and, wouldn't you know, got whacked with what was (at the time) the biggest EU fine in history. That for price fixing.
Let's not forget that the EU forced the big EU ICT companies to open up and allow for competition to flourish. It has.
The result is that telecom infrastructure here is way, way more competitive than in the US. Both in pricing and capacity.
The same has happened with energy providers, rail infrastructure etc.
In those days we were talking about true monopolies in the classic nationalised industry sense.
New technologies bring new problems to solve.
But the funniest thing you wrote is that Apple is impeding "natural" competition in the market! You, and obviously the EU, don't know what natural competition is. It's when you take your own money, time and effort to come up with something better than what is in the market. That is what's fair. And that's natural competition.