Remix.run Logo
bitpush a day ago

I thought HN was super happy with DMA when it was first announced. People were all convinced that EU sticking it to Facebook/Meta was fun to watch.

I wonder now that Apple is affected, will people reconsider their position?

Vespasian a day ago | parent | next [-]

I expected and predicted exactly the behavior that Apple is showing right now.

Currently it's impossible to differentiate real issues of the DMA from Apple being in active resistance.

They themselves are not a trustworthy source on this because it endangers their power and income.

Personally I still support the act and urge the EU to stay it's course. Once Apple returns to sanity and compliance we can talk about reasonable improvements where required. Right now they apparently still think they can bully themselves out of any obligation and this must not succeed.

Users will live without mirroring and AI translation for a little bit.

noirscape a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Keep in mind that Apple's choices to postpone features for the EU as a punishment for the DMA aren't always related to the actual contents of the law, and reek more of trying to find any excuse to block a flagship feature if compliance would take any effort whatsoever.

Take for instance iPhone Mirroring; on paper it's not a technology affected by the DMA at all (in fact, I can literally use my Android phone and adb/scrcpy to cast my phone screen and audio to desktop right now, screen casting isn't some super sacred tech), but Apple has claimed it does for the DMA. Their argument for claiming this is pretty floppy (the way I understand this is that Apple wants to use their own proprietary protocol and doesn't want to provide the protocol specs/cross-platform ways to use that protocol, which is what the DMA asks of them since they're that big of a player - Apple publicly says it'd compromise security, but it should be noted that Apple trots out security as the reason for almost every consumer hostile thing they've ever done in recent memory), but making a big show out of how the EU is evil helps them more, rather than the reality just being wilful noncompliance.

Apple has been bad faith on the DMAs contents from day one, and basically all of their complaints come from that bad faith attempt to comply with it. Junk fees like the CTF/CTC, requiring one million dollars in the bank for app stores and still trying to gatekeep non-app store apps, withholding random features because making them compliant takes a bit of effort: they are all examples of Apple thinking that if they're just obstinate enough about non-compliance with the DMA, that the CJEU or the EC will make the law magically go away by giving them an inch. That may work in the US, but so far it's not exactly been doing wonders in the EU, which tends to just get more pissed off.

lapcat a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> I thought HN was super happy with DMA when it was first announced.

There is almost never consensus on HN. I would be shocked if that ever occurred.

It's often claimed that HN readers believe this or HN readers believe that, but that this to be an exaggeration. The readership has diverse opinions.

pjmlp a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Nope, EU is majority Android market, Apple can play ball or go have fun in US.

I bet Jolla and others would gladly take over.

kyriakos 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Ironically Meta, Google and at a greater extend Microsoft seem more eager to comply than Apple.

microtonal a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Wait what? We always knew Apple would be affected, though I think the holding back of features is also partially out of spite and to weaponize users against the EU.

I am super happy with the DMA (and DSA) and have been an Apple user since 2007. Monopolies, duopolies, and oligopolies should be regulated by law. The law is above Apple. Apple should deal with it and stop whining like a spoiled child.

For me the most egregious thing is when China asks to jump, Apple asks how high. When a democracies ask, they fight it tooth and nail and go full malicious compliance.

tl;dr: yes, it's a shame we are missing out on some features, but protecting the rules established by democracies is more important than a bunch of features.

ahartmetz 19 hours ago | parent [-]

>to weaponize users against the EU

That is not going to work one bit. It's not that EU citizens love or even trust the EU government very far, but the pro-competitive legislation is something that pretty much everyone agrees with.

timeon a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I started moving away from Apple ecosystem since their anti-EU behavior escalated.

seec 18 hours ago | parent [-]

I think they don't realize how many users they can potentially lose. And they are very arrogant but those who will switch are often advisors for other people precisely because they are tech oriented. Since people who don't know much about tech always buy stuff they can get support from their entourage, it can have a snowball effect much bigger than anyone can anticipate.

I know for a fact that I converted A LOT of people to Macs back in the early 2000s. Like the number of friends from high-school who switched to Macs because I could teach them and help them choose is in the double-digits. And those also influence others, teaching what they learned in turn.

Of course, it is never the sole reason to choose a particular device/brand but it is a very significant reason for many "normie".

ginko a day ago | parent | prev [-]

For me Apple was always the number one target of the DMA. If anything I'm annoyed the EU isn't more aggressive with them. They should be broken up.

microtonal a day ago | parent [-]

I am not sure if they should be broken up. It's more that once you are a gatekeeper (which Google and Apple are in mobile), then you get regulated like one. Similar to how in many European countries insurance companies, electricity companies, public transport companies, etc. are regulated because they are .*polies. You can do business, make a profit, but citizens and other companies should be protected against the enormous power you wield.