• gregorum
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      2511 months ago

      Now that you’ve let your guard down, Apple is free to do whatever they want. It’s exactly exactly what Apple wanted.

        • gregorum
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          11 months ago

          maybe

          but hat could take many years to spin up another massive lawsuit like this, and, by then, Apple could possibly have profited kajillions, and/or have modified their communications protocols just sufficiently to skirt regulations. or one of a dozen other legal maneuvers around this or a number of other possible future regulations…

            • gregorum
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              211 months ago

              I try not to predict the future. it took them a long time to get here. I they’e going to loop back around, I can’t see it happening again soon.

                • gregorum
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                  11 months ago

                  It’s not about the explosive growth (or not) of iMessage. It’s a matter of fact about the legal foothold that Apple now holds. That won’t be dislodged anytime soon. Whether or not Apple can get any market growth moving forward, now the EU will have to re-file any efforts to this ruling to them in the future should they try. That is a big deal. And nothing anyone in trying in the EU will move forward anything near the weight this attempt did. 

          • @Zworf@beehaw.org
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            11 months ago

            Also, iMessage will become even more irrelevant now because the other platforms like WhatsApp will be forced to interoperate. By not being part of this “hive”, iMessage will become even less appealing than the others.

        • gregorum
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          511 months ago

          no, merely considered irrelevant— for legal purposes. why? read the headline.

          • @sanzky@beehaw.org
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            411 months ago

            Im not sure you understands how this work. but anyway… they can do whatever with their service. I (or any person I know) dont plan to use it 🤷

              • Gaywallet (they/it)
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                511 months ago

                Insulting people isn’t nice. The only rule on this understand is to be(e) nice. This is not appropriate behavior for our instance. You didn’t need to insult someone to make your point. I’m giving you a 7 day ban to think things over.

              • Norgur
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                11 months ago

                Dude, you tried to lead OP off on a weird tangent that

                a) they didn’t follow you on and
                b) was nonsense and lacked understanding on your part from the get go.

                Stop insulting people as being stupid when clearly you didn’t (want to) understand what was said and just tried to tell people who told personal anecdotes that their anecdotes are wrong…

          • Big P
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            110 months ago

            They must’ve been playing the long game then, iMessage has been irrelevant in Europe since before this law existed. Apple truly thinks of eveything

  • @Bitrot@lemmy.sdf.org
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    2311 months ago

    It’s a win for Apple, but isn’t it also sort of a loss because they’re not popular enough to count?

    • petrescatraian
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      911 months ago

      @Bitrot Kinda like that. Most friends of mine don’t even own an iPhone. Those who do, generally use Facebook Messenger to speak to each other. If anyone is not on Facebook, they are surely on WhatsApp, or they can be reached via the classical phone calls and SMS messages (but I’ve yet to meet someone who I need to use these with, as they are clearly inconvenient as hell). If there’s a group chat, it is generally on WhatsApp.

      I heard Telegram is popular as well in the post-soviet space. It is my fallback as well, and I’m not in one. Plenty of Romanian channels (news or organizations), and I speak with a couple of friends from there. I realize this is just “a different WhatsApp” from the POV of a centralized silo, but the features are great and I’d clearly trust Telegram more than Meta.
      @brisk

    • @BmeBenji@lemm.ee
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      411 months ago

      The government labeling something that Apple fans love as “not needing regulation” is purely a win for Apple. Imagine if 99% of text messages sent were via iMessage, and the EU kept the same ruling. That means that Apple has a functioning monopoly that is not considered a monopoly because there’s technically an alternative.

        • @BmeBenji@lemm.ee
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          111 months ago

          Did you just say Apple would try to prevent their users from switching to iMessage? Apple knows iMessage is a massive selling point for iPhones which is the reason Apple is so afraid of opening iMessage up to begin with.

          • @Knuschberkeks@feddit.de
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            1311 months ago

            Bu that’s the point, it isn’t a selling point in europe. People here mainly use WhatsApp. As a european iPhone user with a lot of other iPhone users in my social circle I pretty much never get an iMessage. I got one two weeks ago, but before that my last iMessage was in 2018. I’ve never heard anyone here talk about blue vs green bubbles and never heard iMessage mentioned in an Android vs iOS discussion.

            • Norgur
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              211 months ago

              I’ve been told that that’s how the kids roll these days in the US.

                • Norgur
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                  311 months ago

                  Well, if you don’t know that, it means that either, you are not a US citizen, which we ruled out, ooooor… oooh, I hate to break it to you but… you have lost touch with “the youngsters” as they say. You are old.

            • @BmeBenji@lemm.ee
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              11 months ago

              It is a major point of social pressure. People get legitimately upset when they start a group chat and realize one of the members doesn’t have an iPhone. That absolutely makes it valuable to Apple

                • @BmeBenji@lemm.ee
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                  11 months ago

                  I agree it’s a minor irritation by most standards, but when all that’s on the line is making jokes about someone based on their choice of phone there’s no reason not to pressure someone else. As to sources, I see it happen all the time. I used to be the one who upset people, then I bought an iPhone and almost everyone I texted got really excited to see the color of our chat change. I’ve also seen countless memes about green chat bubbles and people ruining group chats because of their Androids. I’m not sure you’re going to get much more reliable sources than anecdotal ones for something like this.

              • @survivalmachine@beehaw.org
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                110 months ago

                Are you still talking about the EU here? I’ve heard that is a common sentiment in America, where iphone and android are about 50/50, but it is not my experience that Apple has enough market share anywhere else to make that a serious consideration.

            • petrescatraian
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              311 months ago

              @skullgiver For Apple, the US I think is their main market. Here is still that thing that you need to be rich enough to afford, so this is why iMessage is not such a great thing.

              I think that by staying below the EU radar they get to keep their walls for the US users, where regulations are more lax and don’t pose any risk for their business model.

              @BmeBenji

      • @sanzky@beehaw.org
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        711 months ago

        Imagine if 99% of text messages sent were via iMessage, and the EU kept the same ruling.

        If 99% of messages were sent via iMessage the ruling would have been different. if it ever fulfils the criteria needed to be considered gatekeepers, then they will be designed as such.

        • @BmeBenji@lemm.ee
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          111 months ago

          I’m sure the rule would be different. My point was mostly to say this is in no way bad for Apple

          • Norgur
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            111 months ago

            It’s not bad for apple, but iMessage is so irrelevant here in Germany, even the most die hard Apple fans will use WhatsApp no matter what.

            • kindenough
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              111 months ago

              Same here in the Netherlands. All the people I know with an iPhone use Whatsapp. I only use the standard app to read incoming SMS.

    • gregorum
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      11 months ago

      A loss for European consumers, you mean.

      Apple would rather a hit to their ego than a legal restriction anywhere. A little marketing can fix the former, but the latter can be permanent and fatal.

  • bedrooms
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    11 months ago

    I don’t really understand why Apple defends its position on this. I don’t see anybody benefiting from iMessage being in the current form. Not even Apple.

    It’s the exact kind of stuff Apple ditches usually.

  • AutoTL;DRB
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    311 months ago

    🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:

    Click here to see the summary

    The iMessage service did meet the definition of a “core platform,” serving at least 45 million EU users monthly and being controlled by a firm with at least 75 billion euros in market capitalization.

    But after “a thorough assessment of all arguments” during a five-month investigation, the Commission found that iMessage and Microsoft’s Bing search, Edge browser, and ad platform “do not qualify as gatekeeper services.”

    While Apple has agreed to take up RCS, an upgraded form of carrier messaging with typing indicators and better image and video quality, it will not provide encryption for Android-to-iPhone SMS, nor remove the harsh green coloring that particularly resonates with younger users.

    Apple is still obligated to comply with the Digital Markets Act’s other implications on its iOS operating system, its App Store, and its Safari browser.

    While it’s unlikely to result in the same kind of action, Brendan Carr, a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, said at a conference yesterday that the FCC “has a role to play” in investigating whether Apple’s blocking of the Beeper Mini app violated Part 14 rules regarding accessibility and usability.

    The blocking and workarounds continued until Beeper announced that it was shifting its focus away from iMessage and back to being a multi-service chat app, minus one particular service.


    Saved 64% of original text.