dope_ahmine

dewme said:

crowley said:

dewme said:

At some point the cost of doing business in the EU with its parasitic taxation schemes, intrusive oversight, and blatant protectionism may inspire global players to simply take a pass on dealing with any of it at all. 

Of course it won't.  Money talks and bullshit walks and there's too much money to be made in the EU for Apple or any other company to give even passing consideration to quitting it altogether.  This is a fantasy that far too many people on this board indulge in.  It won't happen.

Wishful thinking perhaps, but let’s see what 6 or 7 more years of shrinkage and decline yields. Having traveled on business around the world there is definitely an air of growth in some parts of the world and an air of decline in others. Hopefully publicly owned global companies will continue to focus on growth markets and growing economies. 

xyzzy01 said:

stuke said:

No one forced you to buy an iPhone nor iPad since 2007. No one also forced you to purchase any smartphone application on the App Store if you did buy an iPhone or iPad.  Get off your high horse and innovate something out of the EU that the rest of the world finds useful, helpful, and or impactful, and is willing with their one free will to pay for that value. 

@Apple, quit selling in the EU Block. It will last for 3-6 months before the findings are negated. . 

Innovation? Spotify invented the music streaming service as we know it today - just as Apple was the catalyst of the generation before, the digital music store. My first Spotify receipt is from 2009, Apple launched their service more than 6 years later. (Disclosure: I'm a customer at both - or rather, I have the Apple family membership and my wife has the Spotify family membership due to needing playlists at her job)

A platform owner using a dominant position to enter a new market and give themselves a large advantage is pretty much as clear cut anti-trust as you can get. I have no sympathy for Epic, but I think Spotify has a good case as Apple has entered the market Spotify created 6-7 years earlier. Giving themselves a 30% competitive advantage when entering a market is not a good thing. 

GeorgeBMac said:

I'm thinking that I should sue Ford, GM, Toyota and Honda over violating my patent of a device that transports people from point A to point B

/s

Flytrap said:

chaicka said:

FizzyPanda said:

Tile is probably wishing it hadn't poked the bear. They're now just a commodity and irrelevant with products that integrate Apple Find My directly. I never liked the fact that Tile tried to block Apple from releasing a competing product under the guise of anti-competitive behaviour. It always felt like Tile were the ones being anti-competitive.

Great move by Apple, the move adds a lot of value to the whole ecosystem, making what was a narrow service much more relevant and mainstream.

And the much delay in releasing 'AirTags' may also be a move to wait for other 3rd parties accessories to be ready and available so as to avoid any perceived anti-competitive flaming. It's great to have choices and integrated 'Find My' devices, equipment, etc without having to solely depend on Tile's devices. Totally agree with what you mentioned - a great move that adds lots of value.

Tile is now faced with a difficult choice for which there are no good options for them. Either they:

1. Stick with their proprietary technology and app, which is cross platform and works on iOS and Android. They already have a sizeable deployed base of users for this - which is necessary to increase the probability of your Tile item being found by another Tile user - but it is a tiny fraction of the number of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and MacBook users who have the Find My app pre installed. This sounds like a lose slowly kind of strategy. Or
2. Switch to Apple's Find My MFi programme where they will likely have a head start over similar competitors due to the number of existing users who are likely to just upgrade to the new Find My compatible Tile device (and maybe find a way of making the new Tile devices backward compatible for their Android users). But they will quickly be swamped and overwhelmed by cheaper Asian copy-cat OEMs who will flood the market with cheap Find My compatible tiles that leverage the same installed base of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and MacBook Find My users as tile - essentially eliminating the one advantage that Tile currently has over any new startup trying to compete with them. This sounds like a race to the bottom kind of strategy, unless they can leverage their brand name to carve out a premium Find My compatible tile niche for themselves (think MFi accessories like cables, battery power packs, phone cases, etc.)