cropr

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cropr
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  • EU questions whether Apple has changed anything after its $1.95 billion fine

    croprcropr
    rob53 said:
    As I've said many times before, people have plenty of choices on what products they want to buy. If you don't like Apple's way of doing things go with an Android platform or demand a company in the EU to build a new platform. Just because Apple's platform is the one many people want to use doesn't mean the EU has any right to tell Apple what to do. If you don't like what Apple is doing, find another platform. It's just like wine. If you don't want to pay for wine made in the EU, then grow your own, which the USA has done. 
    As I've said many times before, the current issue is not about users having choice, it is about  the ant-competitive laws that are applicable in the EU.  These laws are one of the cornerstones of EU, going back to the founding of the EU.   The anti-competitve laws are mainly there to protect smaller companies from the power abuse of larger companies.

    And the ant-steering rule that Apple was imposing in its App Store guidelines to tthe app developers, is without discussion (even Apple acknowledges it now) a schoolbook example of anti-competitive behaviour.

    It remains a big question mark whether the 27% cut rule Apple is using now iso. the anti-steering rule, will not be considered as anti-competitive.

    In case you wonder, the EU anti-competitive laws are applied evenly strictly to large EU companies.  AB Inbev, the Belgian brewer who owns Budweiser, got also a huge fine for anti-competitive behaviour.   If Apple want to do business in the EU, it must comply to these EU laws.

    sphericmuthuk_vanalingamgatorguy

  • Apple wants to hire a PR heavyweight to battle the EU on its own soil

    croprcropr
    If one needs a PR heavyweight to influence the EU, he/she should be located in Brussels.  A person located in London won't be taken seriously by the EU commission and EU parliament.   This sounds like influencing the US government from Mexico City 
    nubusAlex1Navon b7watto_cobra

  • US DOJ will finally sue Apple after years of antitrust investigation

    croprcropr
    I may be wrong, but it seems like so many of these legal issues would be resolved if Apple offered a version of the iPhone hardware for sale without any OS installed, at a higher price that reflected the fact that the in-app purchases customers make help subsidize the hardware. Almost nobody would buy the hardware-only version, but it would help clarify the situation for lawmakers who may otherwise struggle to understand the bigger picture. 
    This would assume that iOS os the issue, but probably this is not the case.    If a iPhone without iOS would become available, some companies might put Android on it, which would be a nice exercise if Apple would disclose the hardware documentation, but I don't believe Apple would like to do that.

    I think that issue is much more the monopoly that Apple has on distributing iOS apps via the App Store.  And this monopoly does hurt some (but not all) app developers.  Being an ap developer myself, I don't mind that Apple is imposing technical requirements for apps, but I do not like the business related rules in the App Store guidelines.   E.g. it is quite beneficial for an app developer to integrate with a single, device agnostic, credit card payment system so the customer care becomes much more streamlined (and as a consequence more cost effective) 

    Whether the end user would experience some benefits if this monopoly would be lifted, remains an open question.  Apple claiims not; Spotify, Epic, Meta and Microsoft claim it does.

    muthuk_vanalingambala1234

  • EU antitrust chief remarks about $2 billion Apple Music fine ignores Spotify dominance

    croprcropr
    blastdoor said:
    And the iPhone has a much lower market share than android in Europe, too. 

    If apple’s HQ were in Paris I bet the EU would treat them very differently.
    Just for information.    AB Inbev, the world largest brewer, received in 2019 a huge fine from the EU commission for anti competitive practices.  AB Inbev is a Belgian company with headquarters located roughly 15 miles from the EU commission offices. So no, Apple (or any big  American company) is not targeted because it is American, but because it is considered to behave anti competitive.  Whether the latter is true is up to EU court of justice to decide.
    gatorguymuthuk_vanalingamspheric

  • Apple kickstarted 5G and now 2 billion smartphones have it

    croprcropr
    I think the kickstart of 5G has very little to do with the availability of the handsets, but much more with the global availability with the 5G network infrestructure.   Rolling out a nation wide 5G network is much more challenging (and costly) than to integrate a 5G modem of Qualcomm in a phone

    Apple sold a lot of iPhones 12 with 5G and that is great for Apple, but this has more to do with the brand name Apple, than with 5G.  Apple would have sold roughly the same number of iPhones 12 if the phone did not have 5G. 

    It only make business sense for the handset manufacturors to add 5G functionality to their handsets if the network coverage of 5G is big enough.  And that was in 2020, despite the fact that a some premium Android handsets had 5G in 2019.


    muthuk_vanalingamtmay