phillyfanatic09

avon b7 said:

Did the EU make Microsoft do this worldwide?

The problem last week had nothing to do with the EU. It was sloppy coding, sloppy testing and with little to no resilience built into the whole process. 

Essentially, yes. Because Microsoft is forced by the EU to allow all external partners equal access to push their security updates, this means mistakes like this can and will happen.

kiltedgreen said:

9secondkox2 said:

The EU is an extortion racket. Change my mind. 

The US is a violent force destabilising peace across the world to suit its own ends. Change my mind.

Nope. You have already made it up. Perhaps you would enjoy living in Ukraine under the benevolence of Vladimir Putin.

blitz1 said:

Point taken. Nice to see that the EC stays sharp as a knife against companies taking competition laws lightly.

if Apple won’t make Apple Intelligence aka OpenAI with an Apple layer, then users can still do without the layer

Of course EU users can use ChatGPT without Apple (at least until OpenAI becomes a Gatekeeper under the DMA) but Apple Intelligence is far more than a wrapper for ChatGPT. Nor is Apple Intelligence the only feature impacted.

VictorMortimer said:

Intentionally omitting features as retaliation?  Yeah, Apple is gonna LOVE the multi-billion fine for this little stunt.

The EU is done playing.  Apple will behave, or they will PAY.

Or, shocker, Apple will leave the EU altogether. Companies are “for profit” entities and publicly traded ones like Apple have an obligation to the their shareholders to act in their interests. Loss of the EU market will hurt but paying out more in fines than you earn in profit makes no sense.

The EU wants smartphones to be like PCs where there is little differentiation between vendors and profit is mainly derived from directed advertising and sale of consumer data. As an American, I am perfectly content to let Europe live in that world but I definitely hope they don’t drag me into it.

gatorguy said:

phillyfanatic09 said:

Again, the EU is saying Apple needs to allow competitors free access to its technology and platform. At fines of a billion dollars a day, Apple would be better off abandoning the EU market. At tough pill but the EU seems determined to have a PC style market for smart phones where all manufacturers pretty much offer the same devices and services and there’s little innovation or profit.

Why? There's little chance of Apple losing customers for its AppStore. What percentage of app buyers will even consider third-party stores? Based on Google Play, which has had to deal with "not-Google" app stores for years, not many. Maybe in the low single digits. So throw away 97% of the revenues because that can't have that other 3%, too. Something about cutting off your nose comes to mind. 

It will come down to the actual fines that are imposed and survive appeals. But no company will do business in an environment where it can’t make money and where accepting the terms imposed by regulators threatens its core business practices. By making the fines extreme, the EU has created this situation.

We are already seeing Apple delaying implementation of Apple Intelligence in the EU over the DMA; as AI becomes increasingly integrated into Apple’s ecosystem, with older devices aging out, this will be another issue that will need to be resolved.