What will happen if they exit the EU? They will loose more revenue and tank their stock and Tim Apple will get the boot ad EU users will move to Samsungs, Pixels and Nokias and life will go on.
You're acting like the EU is some poor country in the outback and not their second biggest market after the US.
Or better yet, we fork Android and have a non-Google EU-only appstore similar to Huawei's Andorid fork OS and appstore but with EU's privacy rules. If so many companies bother to make apps just for Huawei's separate appstore, then they'll definitely do that for the EU as well. Of course, then Google will go bitch about it to "daddy", and the US will probably start a trade war with the EU.
> Or better yet, we fork Android and have a non-Google EU-only appstore similar to Huawei's Andorid fork OS and appstore but with EU's privacy rules.
No one would use it and no developers would publish to them. All brands have their own appstore already, but no one uses them so they also all ship with the Google app store.
> Of course, then Google will go bitch about it to "daddy", and the US will probably start a trade war with the EU.
If Google can do this, certainly Apple can do it too. Biden doesn’t strike me as having much appetite for a trade war with the EU (he famously has a lot of soft diplomacy skills instead), but if Trump were reelected? Maybe that’s something Apple’s holding out for, who knows. Wild speculation on my part.
The idea of leaving Europe is nonsense. Apple is a publicly owned corporation, and Tim Cook would be immediately dismissed for such financial recklessness.
I think their point of view would be that they’re selling a global product and the value of serving a market needs to exceed the cost of the peculiarities of serving it.
Maybe there’s a complex solution here, but the naive one of global compliance to local demands needs an evaluation of cost vs reward. There’s also the somewhat possible concern that the EU might actually just be hostile to Apple and cutting losses now against possible future losses makes sense. (Again, remember we’re presuming order of magnitude increases in fines).
There's an extremely simple solution here. Just comply with the EU regulation in good faith. Sure, you lose some revenue that you'd otherwise get, but only for extremely popular games/apps like Fortnite etc, but your overall margins remain very thick. The vast majority of users would keep using only the App Store and vast majority of developers would publish there, so what's the big deal?
Instead it seems that what Apple is afraid of, is that this would lead to a chink in their armor, _eventually_ leading to their no-compromise attitude being re-evaluated in other markets as well, both by users (just a couple of TikToks from high-profile influencers would be enough to bring this issue into a more public light) and regulation bodies.
How much of that revenue is threatened by DMA? If they stand to lose most of their revenue or profits by complying with the laws, why bother?
It seems crazy that Apple is going to die on this hill, but I’m really curious what the accountants are sending the execs. I could see them willing to gamble a chunk of revenue to prevent every other market from trying to write similar laws, especially if they’re losing that revenue regardless.
My guesses: A big party at Google, a wave of so-so smartphones from companies that will try their luck in the high-end smartphones segment, a grey market of iPhones imported from other countries at high prices without warranty.
I so wish they would do that. Apple thinks it's more powerful than government, let's test that theory!
Most people would understand that these huge, aggressive corporates must be brought to heel. The sooner the EU establishes credibility in this respect, the sooner we all win.
I think the main danger would be a (new?) competitor trying to become Apple, to fill the niche of premium devices, simple lineup, i.e. whatever image apple currently has. And they could do so in europe in all peace and once they are ready expand to other markets and compete with Apple. To me that seems like one of the biggest dangers of withdrawing from the EU.
Investors will be very angry and the entire C-suites will be at risk of losing their jobs. They're doing this only because it will maximize their revenue/profit through market control.
The lose of revenue would not be the biggest problem, they could afford it. The problem would be the loss of applications, most EU based developers would stop supporting iOS and focus on Android. That would hurt
It’s a FAFO suggestion, nothing more, but I have not seen anyone consider (or care?) whether Apple’s EU customers support the various decisions, which is the point that interests me.
That’s not how cooperation treaties and jurisdictions work. They will totally pay that 2B and also pay for the privilege of running after them and the interest rate too.
It’s not a five year old who can do something mean and then just quickly run home.
Hahaha, have you seen the firing frenzy the US execs were expected to execute for a SLIGHT DIP in revenue and a few % in cost of a loan? :D
And you expect those same share holders to just support leaving of a massive market? Cook would be taken through NYSE by his nether regions by just thinking that. This whole idea is nonsense.
And even if, by any bizarre chance (it's 2020s after all) it happens, we'll suffer with... *checks list*... Samsung Galaxy Phones? Lenovo, Samsung and ASUS laptops? Sony headphones? Huh. What horrible existence. I'm sure that would be an end of the Union. Imagine using a great Samsung foldable instead of an iPhone.
> More likely, Apple needs to withdraw entirely from the EU and see what happens.
This uniquely American type of arrogance where TikTok/Huawei is guilty even if it complies will the laws, and American companies are innocent even if they break all our laws.
There are, I am afraid, only two ways to respond - aggressively or subserviently. As US economy loses its position as the centre of the universe, the second option becomes less appealing.
Both sides are authoritarian. One is a private company with more money than most countries, one is an economic union nominally representing the people of many countries.
I don't know where I fall on this issue personally, but siding with Apple is probably more authoritarian.
People defend Apple like its the underdog. Apple has been Goliath for almost a decade. Apple under Tim Cook is more about making money than it is about making the best product.
Yep and i think the market is saturated, but they still need the number to go up for the big shareholders. I mean they have a gross profit of 150 billion, it's not like this is helping the workers making apple's products and services.
I'm old enough to remember when they were the underdog.
I still find it weird that people spent the last 5 years complaining about practices that started when they still were an underdog, and which were applauded at the time, and which don't even fully apply now to all developers anyway.
