>It said that rules under the act affected the way it provided users access to apps. “Pornography apps are available on iPhone from other marketplaces – apps we’ve never allowed on the App Store because of the risks they create, especially for children,” it said.

Oh the children card! Too bad you do ship such an app with your device since forever, it's called a Browser!

> Among the requirements of the DMA is that Apple ensures that headphones made by other brands will work with iPhones. It said this has been a block on it releasing its live translation service in the EU as it allows rival companies to access data from conversations, creating a privacy problem.

This sounds bogus right? If all the headphones can do is transmit audio via first party operating system features how is this creating a data privacy issue? How are headphones going to exfiltrate data unless they have their own Wi-Fi connection or application that can serve as a bridge? Just disallow both.

> “The DMA means the list of delayed features in the EU will probably get longer, and our EU users’ experience on Apple products will fall further behind,”

That's an Apple problem, they're the ones going to lose market share to competitors offering those experiences.

Samsung already has live translation, including in calls.

In any case, I find it interesting that Palantir and Thorn are much better at lobbying the EU against its interests than Apple and other companies on much smaller and less relevant issues.

To play devil’s advocate a little bit, being required to make every new API publicly available right away can be a real pain in the rear for the first several iterations of these APIs, for both first and third parties.

A common pattern in Apple platforms has been for APIs to be private initially, then made public 2-4 major versions after introduction, once the bulk of the design churn is over with and it can remain relatively stable. Essentially, they focus on making it functional and shaped correctly and then make it public once they’re satisfied. They don’t do this with every API obviously, but have with several.

I think the DMA would be stronger if it had a “beta clause” that allowed that form of development for some stretch of time (a couple of years maybe) after public release before requirements kick in. This way companies don’t have to try to juggle making the APIs functional vs. fit for public consumption.

> delayed features are leading to a worse experience for users

If they want to play fast and loose with the lack of consumer protections in the US market, by all means! Delayed features actually lead to a BETTER experience over here in the EU.

This reminds me that recently I was trying to find any and all headsets that implement well into the Apple Ecosystem, then I remembered that Apple owns Beats, while I dont usually care about Beats, I wanted over the head headphones that were not an arm and a leg, only one out of all their headsets going on years now has some support, and it was really confusing figuring out if its even the latest ones. This is a product wholly owned by Apple and even that doesn't get access to Apple's Bluetooth magic? Wild.

I'm not spending the cost of an entry level Mac (nearly) on headphones, that's just insane to me. An entry level Macbook Air is $50 more. That is wild to me. I've never spent that much on Headphones, and if it aint a DAC headset, I just can't justify it.

I do wonder, how much of what Apple is doing is proprietary, and patented? Or is the fear that Apple could not patent it, and competitors will realize they could do the same for other ecosystems?

Apple calls for changes to anti-monopoly laws and says it may stop shipping to the EU

If that happens, then the demand is big enough that companies would import millions of iPhones from other regions and sell them in the EU.

For warranty service, the company would ship the phones back to the original country where Apple sold them.

Then, if that causes Apple too much trouble, then Apple would have to detect that the phone had been spending most of the time in the EU, and refuse to provide free servicing under warranty.

That’s an interesting can of worms for Apple.

What I get from this is that anti-monopoly rules are disrupting Apple's business model. That's great!

Apple's statement is here: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/the-digital-markets-a...

Obviously Apple will never leave a market with 450M people and give this market to its competitors.

What an empty threat. Apple has 1/3 of the mobile market share in Europe and people here are not locked into the ecosystem, with 3P messaging apps like WhatsApp dominating communication. And they are trying to pull this BS at a time that they are facing ever stronger competition from foldable phones and their inability to do anything useful in AI.

As far as I'm concerned, I lowkey want them to do that. Would open up space for an alternative.

As good as Apple hardware is (well in the designe department at least) their behavior is terrible for consumers and their OSs are becoming a joke. So, it's not like we would lose something particularly great.

Everyone will have to come to Switzerland to buy their apple gear. We have the live translation feature now.

There's a few other countries in Europe where it's released but their vat is much higher. I think apple normalizes prices across countries but every now and then it's cheaper to buy apple gear here. There was even a time when iPhones were cheaper here than in the USA because of some exchange rate issues.

Thank God for that. Can Tesla and Meta stop as well?

Thanks in advance.

Sincerely,

The EU.

Oh no, I can't buy the overpriced feature phone that can't even perform basic tasks like blocking ads, whatever will I do-!

Flippin' Symbian phones from early 2010's are more capable and yet they are the ones we call "dumbphones"...

This is the same Apple that was talking about how privacy conscious they're and caved in to China but decides to strong arm Europe.

Yeah sure that will happen in the real world It is of Apples most lucrative markets. I fully understand their frustration but I sincerely doubt that their shareholders will accept it.

Doing it for a week, perhaps, to make a point and see if EU caves from it, which I dont see happening either.

Please do so, we sure won't miss you. Hope Google does the same. Back to good ol' no tech world, this ultra connected surveillance dopamine farm thingy was just a fever dream.

Stop shipping to EU? Didn't work for Russia [0][1], will not work for the EU either.

[0]: https://msk-apple.ru/

[1]: https://apple-com.ru/

> disrupting the seamless way Apple products work together

this defense argument seems really counter productive as it feels exactly the point of antitrust laws.

Just like disrupting the seamless way internet explorer worked together with Windows was exactly the point.

Also the "Pornography, in my iPhone?!" has meme potential.

Do not allow underage kids use smartphones. All problems solved. Thank you for attending my TED talk.

This is great so long as the EU keeps its spine and doesn’t budge. Apple has behaved like a petulant child with the DMA and there’s zero chance their shareholders will willingly drop such a significant revenue %. The EU holds a lot of sway here, just don’t blink first please.

It's sad to see how poorly the U.S. has been enforcing (and interpreting) its own anti-trust legislation the last ~40 years. In my view that decline has been one of the contributing factors to the growing business oligarchy in the country.

Funnily, the previous EU commissioner for competition, who has spearheaded these clashes between EU and the U.S. tech giants has stated that the U.S. basically wrote the book on sensible anti-trust legislation back in the day, and that the EU's current laws are greatly inspired by the historical example of the U.S.

> Apple added that Brussels was creating unfair competition as the rules were not applied to Samsung, the largest smartphone provider in the EU.

This is disingenuous. The DMA gatekeeper rules apply to Android and Google Play, and Samsung's live translation feature does not appear to be tied to specific earbuds.

Pretty scary for Apple shareholders. They're basically saying that the extremely expensive hardware alone isn't enough to make a profit anymore? They're that reliant on the app store monopoly now?

Company that makes vast profits from its monopoly over a digital market is against legislation to stop companies from exploiting monopolies over digital markets.

I am shocked!

> “Pornography apps are available on iPhone from other marketplaces – apps we’ve never allowed on the App Store because of the risks they create, especially for children,”

Why are they going to this now ? Nobody is holding apple responsible for that. It's just another 'think of the children' fear mongering while with the other face they want to be able to record everything without explicit consent or with some guadrails ?

Apple can adapt if they want to participate in the EU market, like others have. They seem to think that it works like their lobby groups in the US.

Just waiting for Macron to receive an expensive plaque from 'Tim Apple'.

Oh no... I am sure it won't be like the last 80 times one of the big tech companies threatened to leave the market.

That’s rich. They do malicious compliance until they’re blue in the face and then blame the EU for it. Not even that tired “think of the children” shtick is too low for them. Pfui.

It's quite interesting to see the sentiment turn against Apple. Even here, on a site which is generally anti-EU no one is buying Apple's whining.

Is this a threat or a promise?

My personal position is “go ahead then.”

can't wait!

Presumably I speak not only for myself. My reply is zero. Zero is the exact number of fucks given.

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