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by speedgoose 2 days ago
I find it interesting that Apple prefers to fall behind in Europe rather than opening their platform a tiny bit.

It gives us European some opportunities. I have a side project at work that was heavily threatened by Siri’s new features. Now I feel more relaxed as Siri isn’t coming there anytime soon.

But overall I doubt we will replace Apple.

7 comments

> rather than opening their platform a tiny bit

Handing full access to the data on a user's device over to a company with the scruples of somebody like Facebook is a privacy nightmare, not "opening their platform a tiny bit".

Well, let that be my concern. Why should I trust Apple more than let's say Proton?
Because when you open it to Proton, you have to open it to Meta. And when Meta does Meta things, the first thing the average user will complain to is Apple - "didn't you advertise to me about privacy?!"
> Because when you open it to Proton, you have to open it to Meta.

No? You dont!? Why would you "have to"?

What’s the point of being forced to open something up if only to say ‘no’ to Meta? Can’t have it both wars. It’s either open or it’s not.
Why would you even consider buying an Apple device if you don't trust they will protect your data?
Because you don't trust Google either, so you're out of realistic options
Yeah, but you get to choose who gets to rip off your data. Joking aside, perhaps there would be some privacy focused alternatives and most importantly for Europeans, they would be hosted in the EU.
Isn't that ultimately the user's choice?
Apple could make settings for controlling exactly what is shared with the various assistants installed including Siri itself. No need for defaulting to full access.

Apple is not abiding, because they want to use time to really ensure they have the best assistant, before they allow competitors to build assistants for iPhone that can replace Siri (in the EU only probably)

EU rejected that. DMA says that 3rd parties must have the same access to data as Apple does, and obviously Apple does not want to turn Siri into a cookie banner party.
Europe is irrelevant in world affairs. It's an uncomfortable truth. They are not a powerful actor. I'm not saying this proudly. EU is idealistic. A political religion. They don't play realpolitik. Which is why the EU has no power. None. You can disagree. But you cannot ignore the truth. You don't have to like the nations that have real power. I don't either. But the biggest mistake we can make is turning our backs on reality.
Is there a way to downvote this comment? If Europe is so irrelevant in world affairs, then why is there a bustling discussion on this issue about who is in the right or wrong here? This is comment lacks good faith to argue against EU's regulatory power if this OP was going for
> It gives us European some opportunities...Now I feel more relaxed as Siri isn’t coming anytime soon.

We've had endless opportunities to compete during Apple's entire 50 year existence.

As someone living in Europe I feel ashamed to read you openly admitting this. This sentiment would feel at home in the USSR.

Instead of trying to create things the world finds useful by building something better/cheaper/more innovative, we're choosing protectionism so we can screw our customers with inferior products they're forced to buy...and relax.

I think we've done enough relaxing in Europe.

We were the birthplace of the industrial revolution...the technologies of which went on to bring the entire world out of poverty last century.

Do we seriously have nothing valuable to contribute to the world during the entirety of the digital revolution? If not, I think our decline and collapsing social welfare systems are deserved.

Who knows? There has been a lot more attention to alternatives as of recently and there is more pushback against lock-in using remote attestation, Google/Apple Pay, etc.

It seems things start to get rolling in a way that they haven't since the start of the Google/Apple duopoly.

Opening up third party access to read all user data on the device, agentic control over all installed apps, etc. is opening the platform a tiny bit?
From the perspective of the user owning their own data and their own device, yes.

From Apple's strategy board point of view, no.

If Apple complied and opened up Siri like the EU wants, the only competition users could choose would be between US companies. DMA does not help EU companies.
It is entirely possible that Apple soon may loose EU market entirely once the Trump gets a relief in Iran and once again tries to invade Greenland.

Apple's services revenue is showing a strong growth and it is entirely dependent on keeping the ecosystem closed so that it can take its commission and sell its services.

Once things get moving they would prefer still having control on the on the US market rather than making slightly more money(if any. No one wants this AI stuff as you can tell by the strong sales Apple keeps having despite or thanks to not having AI integrated) when the EU market is still open to them.