The EU has sent Apple Preliminary instructions Regarding how it expects iPhone Maker to comply with the interoperability provisions of the Group Digital Markets Act (DMA), competitive reforms to its flagship market.
According to the committee, device manufacturers and app developers should have access to nine iOS connectivity features that are limited to Apple exclusive use, such as point-to-point Wi-Fi connectivity, NFC functionality, and device pairing. As a result, Bluetooth headsets, smartwatches, connected TVs or other non-Apple devices should be better with iPhones.
Google can take advantage of this opportunity to make Airdrop work with Android devices. Headphone manufacturers can support SharePlay, which is currently only used with AirPods.
This is the commission opens two specifications on Apple Back to September – The consistent effort to ensure that DMA interoperability requirements are effectively met by Apple, allowing connected devices to utilize iOS connectivity features, including notifications and device pairing.
The second request involves third-party application developers with interoperability with Apple’s iOS and iPadOS platform capabilities. In this case, the Commission recommends improving access to technical documents using these features and better communication with third-party companies. The EU is asking for “timely communication and updates, as well as a more predictable timeline for reviewing interoperability requests.”
Procedures can be conducted through litigation proceedings, as Apple has been designated as the “gatekeeper” under the DMA, and both of its mobile platforms comply with the interoperability rules of the so-called “core platform services” regulations. (Reminder: Penalties for non-compliance with DMA can reach 10% of global annual turnover.)
Although the legislation contains a large number of expected details about how gatekeepers comply with various regulations, such as prohibiting self-selecting by gatekeepers, which is in fact interoperability, the law also allows the commission to develop more specific instructions where additional details are needed to ensure effective qualifying.
The EU is concerned that Apple does not provide a horizontal competitive environment for third-party connected devices that integrate with its platform — for example, the ability to correctly display iOS notifications on non-app smartwatch screens, or a sleek iPhone pairing experience with (non-app) smart speakers.
Apple is generally not satisfied with DMA, or these specific interoperability requirements.
In the latter case, it accuses the EU of picking on its business – as no other gatekeeper has been bound by the specification procedures.
Before the EU released preliminary findings about the lawsuit, Apple also attacked the commission as an anti-innovation action to construct the move as an intervention in the micromanagement of public officials in the context of briefings with journalists.
The company believes that the group’s actions may ultimately limit the technology and functionality offered in the region, as it says DMA will mean it will be forced to deliver all innovation to competitors immediately, indicating that it must invest in the EU in testing and accessing third-party integrations in terms of engineering time before shipping new features.
Additionally, Apple claims that the specification program could have dire consequences for European users’ privacy and security – because it said the group requires it to send unencrypted data to third parties. According to Apple, the committee rejected recommendations to try to mitigate some of these risks.
Apple claims interoperability requirements mean it will be forced to expose potentially sensitive user data — from notifications containing personal messages or one-time coded to details of the Wi-Fi network users join — to external developers who may abuse information for tracking and analyzing.
Social media advertising giant Meta (whose business empire is based on an overview of tracking and selling ads) has been a major requirement for Apple’s app interoperability capabilities.
Due to EU interpretation of the law, Apple also said it would not be possible to take steps to protect users from entities seeking to use DMA to obtain unrestricted access to their information for its own business benefit.
Apple also told TechCrunch that the EU must not provide users with information about potential risks when the EU agrees to receive their iOS notifications on third-party devices – in this case, the user will see a pop-up, but every Apple will ask if they want to receive their notifications on the connected device, and no other context should also be given to the user’s other context.
The so-called Apple “panic screen” (aka, a pop-up of information related to third-party transactions, interactions or accesses, interactions or accesses in companies’ contact with external entities are risky to users – years of grip on certain developers, including those lobbying the EU through DMA for DMA, as they suggest the company’s actions on such strategies to make people laugh at in order to make investigations locally, which is a constant investigation.
“Today’s decisions incorporate us into Apple’s ability to innovate for European users and force us to provide our European and European users with unfavorable companies for free for our European users and thus for free for our European use,” Apple said in a statement following the EU’s preliminary decision on the specifications procedure.
Level competition environment
Although Apple sees DMA as anti-innovation, several smaller companies have been complaining about the company’s (lack of) interoperability. Earlier this week, when pebble creator Eric Migicovsky Unveiled a new smartwatchhe also wrote Long blog posts Explain all of Apple’s restrictions that make third-party smartwatches worse than Apple Watch.
Migicovsky wrote: “We cannot support all the features that the Apple Watch can access.
Migicovsky describes his new company as a “labor of love” for people seeking fun, choppy smartwatches. He disagreed with Apple’s attack on DMA. “They obviously use their market capabilities to lock consumers into the walled ecosystem,” Migicovsky wrote.
Things have become Harder For third-party smartwatch companies in recent years. Due to iOS 13, by default, a preview of notification content is hidden on the iPhone lock screen until you unlock the iPhone. As a result, smartwatch manufacturers cannot get notification content unless the user manually enables full content preview on the lock screen.
Migicovsky does not require users to weaken the security level of iOS, but rather wants to be able to use the API currently used by Apple Watch. He wrote: “If you live in Europe, thank you for your vote to pass the DMA representative.
Although Migicovsky is the vocal rival of Apple’s platform restrictions this week, many startup founders quietly nodded in agreement. According to them, Apple should allocate a small portion of its development resources to level the playing field so that anyone can innovate and compete with tech companies that currently have the largest market capitalization in the world.
