by Apple is opening small cracks in the iPhone’s digital fortress as part of a regulatory push in Europe to give consumers more choices – which risks creating new ways for hackers to steal personal and financial information stored on the devices.
The overhaul, which will take place only in Europe on Thursday, marks the biggest changes to the iPhone’s App Store since Apple introduced the concept in 2008. Among other things, people in Europe can download iPhone apps from stores that are not operated by Apple and is getting an alternative. ways to pay for in-app transactions.
European Union regulators hope the changes mandated by the Digital Markets Act, or DMA, will loosen the control that Big Tech “digital giants” have gained over the products and services used by consumers and businesses. as they become more dominant forces in everyday life.
The measures come just days after EU regulators fined Apple nearly $2 billion (1.8 billion euros) for stifling competition in the music streaming market.
Apple has grappled with the new regulations on unnecessary security risks for iPhone users in Europe, exposing them to more scams and other malicious attacks launched from apps downloaded from outside its ecosystem and raising the morale of more unsatisfactory services. more does pornography, illegal drugs and others. content that the company has long banned in its App Store.
Despite trying to maintain security protections and comply with the new rules in the 27-nation bloc, Apple is warning that “there will be a gap between the protections Apple users outside the EU can rely on and the changes required by the DMA. protections available to users in the EU going forward.”
But some smaller tech companies like music streaming service Spotify and video game maker Epic Games are attacking Apple’s compliance with the DMA as little more than a facade that “mockerizes” the intent of the regulations.
“Apart from creating healthy competition and new options, Apple’s new terms will erect new barriers and strengthen Apple’s hold over the iPhone ecosystem,” Spotify, Epic and more than two dozen other companies and alliances wrote in a letter to the European Commission on 1 March, the EU’s executive arm oversees the DMA.
Epic, which is behind the popular game Fortnite, also argues that Apple is already brazenly violating the DMA by refusing another iPhone app store that it planned to release in Sweden. Epic asserted that Apple blocked its bid to compete in retaliation for scathing reviews posted by CEO Tim Sweeney, who led an unsuccessful antitrust case against the iPhone App Store in the US.
Regulators have so far not opposed any changes Apple is making to iPhone software updates tailored to comply with the DMA.
Europe’s changing digital landscape is forcing changes on other tech powerhouses such as Google and Facebook, but the new regulations are at the heart of Apple’s philosophy of maintaining control over every aspect of its products.
This “walled garden” approach coined by the late co-founder Steve Jobs starts with the meticulous design of the hardware and then extends into all the software that powers devices, as well as oversees the commerce they’re running .
The approach built an empire with nearly $400 billion in annual revenue—a measure of success Apple traces directly to the confidence it has built over years of careful management of the iPhone and other popular products such as the iPad, Mac and Apple Watch.
Even Epic’s Sweeney admitted that one of the reasons he uses an iPhone is because of the strong security measures Apple has implemented to prevent hackers and protect the privacy of its customers. That came during testimony in a trial in May 2021 that led to a US judge ruling that the App Store is not a monopoly.
In that decision, the judge required Apple to start allowing links to external payment options inside iPhone apps in the United States.
Apple does not allow other app stores for iPhone in the United States or more than 100 other countries outside the EU.
European regulators seem convinced that the benefits to consumers from more competition outweigh the increased security risks.
A potential positive is lower prices for digital transactions within apps if competing stores charge lower commissions than the 15% to 30% fees Apple has been imposing for years.
But critics are raising doubts that will happen because Apple still plans to charge after app downloads reach relatively low thresholds and has set up other hurdles that will make it daunting to make alternatives to go to make significant progress in Europe.
For its part, Apple insists that the security problems facing the DMA are so worrying that it is hearing from government agencies – particularly those involved in defence, banking and emergency services – who want to ensure they can block employees with iPhones from accessing apps distributed outside of Apple’s walled garden.
“All of these agencies recognized that sideloading—downloading apps outside of the App Store—could compromise security and compromise government data and devices,” Apple said.
