Apple Will Open Up the iPhone To Third-Party Services, Spotify Predicts

Apple's platforms like the iPhone are set to open up more, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said Tuesday. The firm has criticized Apple in the past, taking legal action against what it perceives as unfair treatment of third-party services. From a report: "Long term, we do expect Apple to open up," Ek told Bloomberg in a TV interview. "We're very encouraged about being able to now finally use Siri as a way of building in voice support and also being available to build products for the Apple TV and Apple Watch, something that we haven't been able to do until very recently." It's a bold claim, particularly as Apple is famed for maintaining close control over its platforms. The iPhone only officially supports downloading apps through its App Store, for example, and developers have to abide by strict rules that can leave firms giving a percentage of user subscription fees to Apple.

iMessages

[backslashdot]

iMessages is one of the biggest things keeping people and entire extended families on the iPhone. Would the EU force them to open that? I wouldn't necessarily support such a thing btw.

Re:

[kqs]

I don't care if they open up access to the iMessage service, but I do want them to allow other SMS apps (specifically, allow other apps to connect to the internal SMS service to send and receive messages). It won't happen unless some government forces them, though.

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[chispito]

iMessages is one of the biggest things keeping people and entire extended families on the iPhone. Would the EU force them to open that? I wouldn't necessarily support such a thing btw.

So what you're saying is that it's the DRM'd iTunes library of the 2010s and beyond?

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[antdude]

And Macs, iPads, etc. Not just iPhones.

Bad headline

[alvinrod]

The headline really should start with "Spotify predicts" but then again no one would be tricked into reading the pointless article if they did.

Re:Bad headline

[nospam007]

"The headline really should start with "Spotify predicts"

Not quite, it should say "Spotify hopes in vain..."

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

In unrelated news: RandomCorp predicts Spotify will pay reasonable compensation to artist. /s

Also, if Spotify wants to play that game, how come they just became less open by closing down APIs allowing third party apps, specifically DJ apps, to use the Spotify catalogue? ( https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/24/21192473/spotify-revoking-support-developer-api-third-party-dj-apps-algoriddim-djay [theverge.com]) Something that needed a paid Spotify account to work, and to my knowledge diverted NO subscription fees away from Spotif

Open when you can no longer make money

[jellomizer]

For technology companies they often follow this particular pattern.
Start out Open, Being Open gives you advantages over your competitors, and allows third party to work with you.
Begin Closing things, You have setup you niche and your competitors cannot get caught up to you, third party are less and less needed as your product becomes complete on it own.
Being to Open up again. As your product advantage is no longer as strong as it was anymore, and need to play with the new players.

   

"Long-term" == bullshit

[Gravis Zero]

This could mean anything like "after they are forced to after a seven year court battle," "after Cook gets replaced," "after an anti-trust breaks up Apple" or some other bullshit. A more accurate statement is that "for the foreseeable future it is unlikely for Apple to allow third-party services but they might eventually change that policy".

Are Apple devices too proprietary?

[Unpopular Opinions]

Build your own device, then. Yes, apps did made the iPhone the huge success it is, but an app developer did not had to undergo hardware or software design, validation, certification, logistics, neither supports the base unit components. Much less cares about data security or privacy. Or content distribution. Or upgrades. Or roadmap. So yeah, the Apple cut is not a ridiculous price to pay for all its benefits of worldwide massive availability. But hey, let us devs complain it is not free for us and we want

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[xMate420x]

I wouldn't really call a 'walled garden' system a benefit

What are they talking about?

[xgerrit]

I'm assuming by "open up" they mean "change the default music app on iOS"..? "Open up" is very relative considering Apple has already pushed a huge number of users to Apple Music, is now requiring apps to accept 'Sign in With Apple' for login, and has always take a large cut of all purchases and subscription revenue. There are two reasons Apple may "open up" more when it comes to music: They want to avoid anti-trust action, and they are playing catch-up in the smart-speaker market and need competing services on HomePod.

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[tlhIngan]

I'm assuming by "open up" they mean "change the default music app on iOS"..? "Open up" is very relative considering Apple has already pushed a huge number of users to Apple Music, is now requiring apps to accept 'Sign in With Apple' for login, and has always take a large cut of all purchases and subscription revenue. There are two reasons Apple may "open up" more when it comes to music: They want to avoid anti-trust action, and they are playing catch-up in the smart-speaker market and need competing service

Corp-speak Translation

[Miles_O'Toole]

""We're very encouraged about being able to now finally use Siri as a way of building in voice support and also being available to build products for the Apple TV and Apple Watch..."

Translation: "We're yanking our peckers like a teenager on Viagra because we can now finally use your iPhone to build a profile containing every note of music you hear, and where you were when you heard it. Even better, we'll be able to deny that we listen in on conversations.

Re:

[bug_hunter]

Except not that at all.

Spotify has been complaining about Apple for a long time, two main complaints:
* Losing 30% or 15% of their revenue to people who sign up to Spotify via iOS.
* Not being able to change the default music app on an iOS device - So most Siri related things with music will always go to Apple Music instead of another player.

Most likely they're referring to the 2nd option in their hopeful prediction.

Not to say that Spotify wouldn't absue privacy if given the chance, but I don't think what the

Re:

[Miles_O'Toole]

Your faith is touching. Naive, perhaps, but touching. And given the way they screw artists over, I'm not unhappy to see them get a little of it back from Apple.

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[bug_hunter]

Yes, how faithful and naive of me to think that Spotify wants money.