red oak

rax_mark said:

red oak said:

Spoken like a true socialist

I believe in a healthy mixture of Capitalism and Socialism. Following only one to the letter is stupid and is detached from reality.

red oak said:

Apple opened up the browser, NFC, and allows game streaming apps.  And, allows distributions of apps outside of the App Store

All of which they were compelled to do due to regulation, not out of a spirit for fair competition. The new app store policies that allow distribution of apps outside the iOS app store were made in such a way to make the process almost impossible to do monetarily while still being a gatekeeper to that process.

red oak said:

do you think Apple should get zero compensation for that?

Isn't over 50% margin on the sale of iPhones compensation? Apple makes so much money on iphones alone that those profits should be able to fund all of their other hardware projects and software departments and even R&D. Airpods, Macs and watches don't hold a candle to the profit they make on iPhones. They could give free Airpods with iPhones and still make profit (this data is publicly available).

Yet, Apple double dips (yearly developer program charges), triple dips (monthly 30% cut from developers), and is now planning to quad dip (core technology charges). At one point, intervention was inevitable, I only thought it would be developers protesting instead of government regulation. However, even with regulation they will make record profits on hardware sales. I don't think they are in a position to sympathize with.

rax_mark said:

The EU, unlike the US, believes in the spirit of the law, instead of the word of the law, Apple should have realised that.

Apple cannot win this one by using legal loopholes. I suspect if this continues we may see one of two possibilities:-

I) Apple exits the EU.

II) The EU bans Apple within its borders.

I suspect Apple doesn't want to give up the European market to Samsung and Google, so the first one is highly dependent on whether Apple can still get a profit with side loading existing.

Also, it is possible that other countries implement a DMA equivalent law (Japan is already in the process of doing so) so exiting markets will be shooting themselves in the foot.

One thing is sure, the next decade will be different for Apple than the previous one.