This was a great read. One problem that I have, at least, is that I think the eu is not understanding the tech on this one and actually violating their own, all important, single market principle. With the apple all store, there actually was just one market and a set of standards and regulations that governed it. Now, there will be x many standards. The experience on the foo app will depend on what App Store it was purchased in.
If the eu had taken a more ambitious route then I could see this actually working for apple, who operates, imo opinion, under the principle of balancing what is best for the customer against what the developer can tolerate. This has created the apple ecosystem as the only one that is profitable, precisely for the same reason the author argues the eu seeks to regulate businesses.
So by more ambitious I meant there needs to be a convention that governs technology along a framework akin to a technology user’s bill of rights. No stealing information, no antipatterns, cancel subscriptions with a single click, etc…
> actually violating their own, all important, single market principle
Single-market perspectives only apply to EU member-states. There is no expectation of "singleness" outside the EU borders, any extra-EU standardization is just an occasional side-effect.
This is the same as talking about "free trade" inside and outside the US: outside US borders there is no obligation for the US government to obey "free trade" principles, which is why they will happily apply import tariffs that would be illegal to have between US states.
> apple, who operates, imo opinion, under the principle of balancing what is best for the customer against what the developer can tolerate
Big lolz. Apple operates under the principle of balancing what is best for Apple against what the market will tolerate. The rest is just advertising.
I think you misunderstood what the "single market" in that article means. The EU doesn't want there to be a single marketplace (App store). The single market means unifying the different national European markets. The EU cares about maintaining that market, keeping it healthy and competitive and using it as a glue to keep the European nations together and peaceful.
> convention that governs technology along a framework akin to a technology user’s bill of rights. No stealing information, no antipatterns, cancel subscriptions with a single click, etc…
What you're suggesting is exactly what the EU is doing through GDPR and now the DMA. The balancing act is them recognizing that these big powerful tech companies derive their value partly from their scale, network effect, etc. and trying not to, for example, try and break them up, but instead lay out a set of principles that a sufficiently big tech company has to comply with. These rules are designed to promote consumer interests and limit what is perceived as abuse of market power by forcing the companies to be more open to competitors.
> I think you misunderstood what the "single market" in that article means
I can see your point, and when as I was reading I was definitely finding myself understand better the EU's POV, however at the end, when I tried to apply the same example given in the article to the present circumstances, I had a hard time seeing how DMA furthered those goals. But to see what I mean, let's look at an example:
> The single market means unifying the different national European markets.
This is the general thrust of it, and I agree with it and it makes sense to me. The article even went to great lengths to say that the EU would do this even at the expense of their own industries, because the outcomes would ultimately be better for everyone. The example given was roaming, and I think that makes a lot of sense. Another example given was standardizing on 230v AC, while still allowing each country to maintain their regional outlet shapes.
Ok, so far I think we should be in agreement and I haven't said anything that doesn't come directly from the article. In summary the single market means unifying the national markets, and this is done by making one set of rules, even if it's at the expense of their own industries. So nothing thus far should be controversial.
Now in the case of Apple, the question is what being regulated. They're not requiring iOS and android apps to be cross platform, as that would be intractable and is akin to the example in the article of requiring countries to change their plugs. It's basically "infrastructure" at the point, and the cost doesn't justify the benefits. So in this case, the "what" means iOS apps.
To that end, what remains is defining a set of rules that applies to all iOS apps so they can be some uniformity of regulations, similar to the example of standardizing on voltage or charger format. So what are these things in particular? That would be where apps can be found, how they're downloaded, how people pay for stuff, how they cancel subscriptions, etc...
Ok, so now we've reached the point. All of these things actually were already standardized in a single, predictable way, just that they were done by apple. This was done even at the "expense of industry", which in the case would be the developers. I'm sure developers, like cell phone carriers would love to do bad stuff to their users if it makes them more money, but it's ultimately better for the industry as a whole to forbid it. This only works when your competition can't do the bad stuff either.
There are legitimate complaints that I believe can and should be guided towards apple's stewardship of the App Store, but I don't think requiring multiple app stores was the solution. My point is I think the ethos of what the EU is doing is correct, and I wholly support the effort, as I indicated in my ancestral comment. However, I just don't agree that they chose the right unit of abstraction. They should be forcing apple and Google as app stores to abide by a single set of guidelines, but the implementation therein should be left to those companies. Google allows multiple app stores, great. Apple doesn't want to. That should also be fine.
So if you disagree with me, or if I still don't understand the article, can you explain to me better how? As I see it there are multiple levels they could have chosen to enforce the one market principle. I just don't agree with where they chose it. By the same token, forcing iOS and android to be cross platform would also be incorrect.
Ok, and finally I say this mostly from the pserpsective of an iOS user. I like the platform and I feel like I can trust it, however it really only works if developers don't have alternatives where they can do bad stuff. So if there's another App Store where they're free to do shady stuff then it puts all the developers distributing their apps through the apple App Store at a disadvantage.
On the other hand, if the EU wants to manage and regulate all the app stores with a consistent set of guidelines, then I don't understand what are even the points of other app stores. So help me understand, because to me it just seems like what the EU wants we already had when apple was curating the App Store, and it wasn't even really that bad for anyone besides developers, which the EU seemed to be fine with if it was for the good of the industry.
> All of these things actually were already standardized in a single, predictable way, just that they were done by apple.
If there is only one company, it's not a standard - it's a monopoly.
> They should be forcing apple and Google as app stores to abide by a single set of guidelines
They are. It's just that what Apple does simply won't fit in those guidelines.
> but the implementation therein should be left to those companies.
It is. The DMA doesn't tell Apple how to run their servers or what APIs to allow. It just tells everyone, including Apple, that some behaviors in the market are ok and some are not. It just so happens that Apple falls in the not-ok bin.
> Google allows multiple app stores, great. Apple doesn't want to. That should also be fine.
According to whom, you?
The fact is that European society, as represented in the EU Parliament, EU Council, and EU Commission, determined that such behavior is NOT fine in the market. It strangles competition to Apple in the digital-services arena and effectively allows them to extract rent from the whole industry. Hence, Apple should stop what they are doing or face consequences. This is a side-effect of issuing guidelines for acceptable behavior in the digital marketplace.
If you don't like the directive, go vote for some party in European elections (hey, this year) and national elections (possibly this year, depending on the country) to change it. If you're not in Europe, well, you are not affected by the directive, so you don't really get a say about it.
The Facing Reality article [1] explains what "single market" means in the context of app stores:
"App Stores let private companies subdivide and control the single market to their own financial gain. When much of the digital economy is taking place on phones, tablets, and various other devices that are largely limited to App Stores, this is effectively ceding the single market to a fragmented market that’s entirely under corporate control.
This is against the core operating theory behind the EU."
If the eu had taken a more ambitious route then I could see this actually working for apple, who operates, imo opinion, under the principle of balancing what is best for the customer against what the developer can tolerate. This has created the apple ecosystem as the only one that is profitable, precisely for the same reason the author argues the eu seeks to regulate businesses.
So by more ambitious I meant there needs to be a convention that governs technology along a framework akin to a technology user’s bill of rights. No stealing information, no antipatterns, cancel subscriptions with a single click, etc…