[dmz73]

Look, either you force everyone to be open to competition and interoperable or you allow everyone to lock down. How would you like all other manufacturers to do the same as Apple? BMW, VW, Ford, Mercedes, GM ec all have their own petrol stations, their own approved roads, their own approved tyres, their own approved parking spots. LG, Samsung, GE, Panasonic etc each require their own electricity distributor, their own wiring and plugs, for the washing machine their own approved clothes, for the fridge and cooking appliances their own food and cookware. Each emplyoyer requires you to buy their approved apparel and use their own aplhabet and writing system. And YOU get to pay for it all.

[cbeach]

I want Apple to have competition, but I also don't want Apple to lose its unique advantages, which mostly come through the tight vertical integration between hardware and software.

If I don't want tight vertical integration, I could easily buy any number of Android devices.

EU regulators want to compromise vertical integration, which means depriving consumers of a legitimate choice many of them make.

[concinds]

> EU regulators want to compromise vertical integration

No. Apple somehow convinced people that: "our products work great with each other" *must* somehow involve: "we won't let competing brands work well with our products". Slick marketing!

The EU's warning involves the iPhone's interoperability with other watches and headphones when it comes to "notifications, device pairing and connectivity" (quoting Euronews). For example, you can reply to texts from an Apple Watch, not a Garmin (it works fine on Android). That's an arbitrary software restriction.

[st3fan]

Nobody is forcing you to buy an iPhone.