Will Apple enter a new open era?

Lounge
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First it was the EU, forcing Apple to switch to USB-C from lightning, then coming at them with the Digital Markets Act (DMA), forcing them to open up their App Store on iOS. They showed their bite is just a fierce as their bark with a follow-up €1.8 billion ($1.95 billion) fine for anti-competitive conduct against rival music streaming services (mainly Spotify).

Now, in a surprise move, the US is jumping on the bandwagon and suing Apple, claiming they have a monopoly on the smartphone market in the US.

I’m not a fan of monopolies, and I think consumer choice is great, but I do like the aspect of Apple’s closed ecosystem which allows some impressive vertical integration. The fact they control the hardware, software, and App Store results in tighter integration and generally products that “just work”, which is a big reason why a lot of consumers use their products.

Going to be interesting to see how Apple responds to all of this. It’s obvious they are going to hate giving up any level of control of their ecosystem. Is a more open Apple really going to benefit consumers in the end, or will it lead to a more fragmented ecosystem like Android?

Curious what everyone’s thoughts are on the topic. :apple:

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Hi, we choosed (all the family) Apple ten years ago for this : just work without complication. It’ s very expansive but it does exactly what we wanted. « Never touch a running system. » I think it’s true in this case. We will see. What I don’t understand is the nowaday obvious choice to break everything that works well : boiler, fuel, engineers, Disney… hmm maybe I go too far :sweat_smile: