
Russia bans smartphones without local software - thereyougo
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50507849
======
throwGuardian
Just like with China, Apple will simply roll over, like an obedient puppy, and
do whatever's asked of them.

It's funny how Apple only punches down - against app devs or other companies
that it can bully, but the moment it faces a formidable adversary (China,
Russia, ..), it cowers to safety.

~~~
lordnacho
Isn't that how power works in general? Why would they pick a fight with a
government just to prove they are tough? If you're gonna lose, don't fight.

~~~
class4behavior
It isn't power that makes Apple comply but the value of the Chinese market.

Russia's market isn't that attractive but it's doing ok and it can take
advantage of the requirements China enforces anyway. That is, there is no
point for companies to leave Russia when they're complying to similar demands
in China anyway.

------
lokimedes
My cynical view on this is that Russia is preparing for a conflict where they
can cut ties with western infrastructure, while keeping themselves covered by
domestic alternatives. It plays well with their efforts to boost robustness of
their local internet under a severance from the rest of the world.

------
jammygit
We need to take these foreign stories as serious cautionary tales. For anybody
who has been in doubt so far, this is what all this surveillance tech looks
like as soon as the government decides it wants to gain power with it

------
fractalf
"Others have raised concerns that the Russian-made software could be used to
spy on users." ..ehm right, because there's no spying on user activities when
you use google's preinstalled apps :/

~~~
billars
also look at all the preinstalled software I cannot uninstall in every
smartphone now.

------
Koshkin
Well, looks like they are planning to do this not just with smartphones, but
also with smart TVs and even computers. (I guess the latter means that you
wouldn't be allowed to install and use an OS that is not supported by the
required software.)

------
m0zg
For Russian users this is actually beneficial. You see, they have their own
"Google" that serves that market much better: Yandex. The first thing I did
when I bought my mom a smartphone there is I installed Yandex launcher and a
bunch of other Yandex stuff - out of the box it's unusable to anyone beyond
age 30. Not only is their search is better when searching the Russian-speaking
segment of the internet, their local news, maps, etc are all better as well.
Their maps, for instance, tell you where the speed cameras are on the highway
so you could avoid a ticket. They even have their own voice assistant, and it
works OK too.

