All mentioned by you allow installing and loading up an app/game without it's official app store.
I think that’s the answer. A popular platform doesn’t mean it’s a gatekeeper. And because something’s not designated a smartphone doesn’t mean it’s not capable of running apps. Heck my flip phone in the 1990s ran VZ navigator.
Come on now. You can physically walk into a bank and pay with cards and checks. I don’t recall a time where I had to use my phone for an actual payment. It’s either cards or checks or cash.
I live in Europe.
Online payment transactions normally require two-factor authentication.
So you absolutely cannot do any form of banking or pay for anything without a phone? And this is Apple’s problem how?
It's not entirely, but Apple, and Google, worked very hard to take as much of the mobile market as they could, using things like free App hosting and code signing. They wanted the world to move onto their platforms, they wanted everything to be an App. Customers loved it too, so did developers for a time. As apple and google got bigger and bigger their power grew and at this point in time Apple and Google have such outsized share of power that developers have no negotiating power on their own. The only entities left that can really ensure there is competition and fair market access are governments because they are the only entities left with the power to really stand up to Apple and Google.
Apple has a die hard cult following, that’s why.
How is it Apple or Google’s fault you all cannot do any form of physical payments? I mean what it digital warfare happens or both companies stop making phones. You all literally cannot make any payments in person?
As I keep saying, popularity is a curse. The DMA is a bunch of needle threading nonsense designed to target American tech.
Sure I could.
Smartphones provide convenience and great utility to both (3rd party) businesses and consumers.
That wasn't my point.
Most companies would kill for such a die hard cult following.
Except the DMA is not fair. I agree with fair, but that’s not what the DMA is. The DMA is unfair.
Except that no matter how it is sliced it Apple disappeared tomorrow life would go on without missing a beat. That’s not the definition of essential. I’d argue convenient but not essential.
And my point was Apple and Google are not REQUIRED for banking and payments.
So? At some level electricity is not required, but only extreme (usually USA) libertarians would actually argue that electric utilities should be allowed to charge whatever they want.
I mean a tin can and string can perform the same function as a telephone, or indeed a PC connected to the internet, but in reality people use iOS and Android so they are in practice gatekeepers. The theoretical availability of alternatives or that they in turn rely on other technologies doesn't change that.
More than fairly pissed — this is about as harsh as you’ll ever see in a case like this, and the criminal referral is a very big deal. Apart from Roman, Apple’s lawyers should be very worried. They have an absolute ethical obligation to correct the record if their witness lies under oath. If they failed to do that, they could be looking at sanctions or worse.
