Apple Faces EU Antitrust Charge on Spotify Complaint (reuters.com) 22
Apple could face an EU antitrust charge sheet in the coming weeks following a 2019 complaint by music streaming service Spotify, Reuters reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. From the report: The charge could force changes to Apple's lucrative business model, they said. The European Commission could send the statement of objections setting out suspected violations of the bloc's antitrust rules to Apple before the summer, one of the people said. The case is one of four opened by the EU competition enforcer into Apple in June last year. The EU charge sheet usually indicates whether a fine is merited and what companies have to do to halt anti-competitive practices.
apple needs to let web browsers use any render (Score:3)
apple needs to let web browsers use any render in the app store as well.
Re: (Score:2)
Apple rightly has a concern about 3rd party renderers being a security or performance (i.e., battery drain) risk.
I don't see any problem with them providing the renderer and making it available to anyone that wants to make a web browser; the Webkit renderer performs well and is well maintained. The issue is whether or not developers making browsers have the same access to APIs as Apple. As long as they're as unencumbered as Apple is (more or less), it shouldn't be an issue.
Re:apple needs to let web browsers use any render (Score:4, Interesting)
Apple rightly has a concern about 3rd party renderers being a security or performance (i.e., battery drain) risk.
How about they let the user decide whether the battery drain is worth it or not for not using Apple's rendering engine? What if someone provided a better engine?
Re: (Score:2)
'Better' in what sense? The web is standardized-ish, and pages should render properly in Webkit. You're unlikely to see any meaningful speedup from a third party, because Apple is working with APIs that aren't open to 3rd parties. They have ways to optimize that simply aren't possible to a third party.
So you'll have to be more clear about how someone would write a 'better' renderer for iOS.
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Better could mean various different things. How about they let the user decide what is better?
By your logic, Microsoft should have forced the Internet Explorer engine on Windows, and banned alternatives. Web pages should render properly in IE, isn't it?
Go Spotify (Score:2)
I hope Apple is forced to allow sideloading. Blocking it is bad for competition. If Apple's store is that good, people will want to use it anyways so what does Apple fear?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Apple is rightly concerned about the massive increase in support requests / bad press because (rightly or wrongly) they will be blamed for every malware / exploit that makes it through the side-loading storefronts.
Re:Go Spotify (Score:5, Insightful)
yeah right... that's the excuse. The real reason is the 30% tax.
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The money is less important than the control. Their cut is already reduced to 15% in a number of circumstances (subscriptions longer than a year, companies that are big enough to push back, developers that make less than $1 million in sales a year, etc.)
Apple is more concerned about dictating terms than the cut, because controlling the platform is exactly what makes them appealing as a product.
Re: (Score:3)
BS. They'd still control the platform and 99% of apps sold would be through their store even if they allowed sideloading.
The difference is that a few major players (epic, spotify) would no longer pay the 30% tax.
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SALES> will go through the app store.
but only about 50% of apps installed will go through the app store.
When jailbreaking was popular (and mildly difficult), the major reason was ... piracy. Paid apps for free, and there were plenty of iOS app piracy sites. It's dropped some because it's much harder now, though there's a service you can pay $20/year to sideload any unsigned app onto yo
Re: (Score:2)
SALES> will go through the app store.
but only about 50% of apps installed will go through the app store.
I disagree. On Android there are probably 95%+ of apps installed through the play store. Unless you count non-Google devices such as Amazon Fire (which have their own store, of course).
I'd even say it's the opposite. The sideloads are going to be stuff like epic games who want to avoid the fee.
Guess what? Most popular apps, and the most used ones, are all free. Social media. Bank apps. Browsers. Email.
Except if you are a mobile gamer, most paid apps are crap anyways. It's not as if I could pay to get a bett
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Those companies *already don't*. Large companies have been getting a break from the 30% cut for years now.
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Still, 15% or 10% or whatever is better than 0% for Apple. Allowing sideloading means allowing 0%. That's the #1, #2 and #3 reasons why Apple don't want to allow it.
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Yes they can. But Spotify is a special case, because they compete against Apple Music. Let say you are a new iPhone owner and want to subscribe to a music service. You can download and register for Apple Music, or your can download Spotify and you need to register out of the app otherwise Spotify will lose 30%.
It gives an unfair advantage to Apple. And I am not talking about the fact that their app might even come pre-installed or promoted in their app store.
Thankfully, Apple only has about 15% of the smart
Re: Go Spotify (Score:1)
This is just a made up excuse.
On Android you can load apps or even alternative stores from the very beginning, on windows too and I suppose (since I don't have a Mac) on macs too and no one is complaining about it.
If Apple is really concerned about malware and dangerous apps all they have to do is provide a free antivirus software as Microsoft is doing on Windows (and I believe Google too).
The truth is that they love their monopolistic malpractices, they love locking their users on their platforms and they
And so (Score:2)
We care about monopolies and cartels until we don't, like entrenched taxi services.
And now, for my downmod. Please read my .sig first, and see if there's a shred of intellectual honesty left in you, causing your itchy hack finger a quickly-ignored twinge.
Re: (Score:2)
We care about monopolies and cartels until we don't, like entrenched taxi services.
Monopolies are a complicated multi-faceted issue. Regulating them well is a non-trivial exercise. It's not a priori insane to treat them on a case by case basis.
And even if you think other monopolies (such as taxi services) are currently being under or over regulated, that doesn't excuse failing to appropriatly regulate Apple or other tech companies.
pot, kettle, black (Score:2)
Aspiring monopolist calls out established monopolist for monopolistic practices, more at 11. Now, here's Harry with sports.