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Can you think of any reasons why it would be limited to just those countries? Note that I'm _not_ asking why those countries are nifty. I'm asking what you thin

Can you think of any reasons why it would be limited to just those countries? Note that I'm _not_ asking why those countries are nifty. I'm asking what you think Apple gains by limiting it to just those countries in the first place or would lose by not limiting it to just those countries. The feature technology would be the same regardless of where you are, so saying "only available to users in X" seems like an arbitrary restriction. And there are surely orders of magnitude more Apple iCloud users in Japan or India than in Liechtenstein.

Denvercoder9 6y ago
Easy migration to a competitor could hurt their customer retention. Why offer it at all then? At least in Europe the GDPR requires direct transfer of your data to a competitor where technically possible.
- BugsJustFindMe 6y ago
  The GDPR (or some similar requirement) only appears to apply to a subset of the chosen countries.
  - flipbrad 6y ago
    Note that the GDPR applies to businesses established in Europe, effectively regardless of the location or nationality of users. For instance, the UK authority recognised a US resident's right to invoke GDPR, during the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
    - punnerud 6y ago
      It also apply to every data owned by a citizen living in EU (EU != Europe), regardless of the country the company is located.
jonas21 6y ago
If I had to guess, I'd say that Apple and Google probably have a contract that covers how this transfer takes place, and it takes some amount of effort from their legal teams to ensure that it's a valid contract that complies with the laws of each jurisdiction. As a result, they started with the highest-value jurisdictions like the US and EU first. Regarding Liechtenstein, it is (along with Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland) part of the European Single Market [1] via trade agreements with the EU, so it's possible that it was trivial to adapt whatever contract they were using in the EU to cover them as well. I don't think it's a coincidence that all 4 are on the list -- but again, this is just a guess. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Single_Market https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Single_Market
- flipbrad 6y ago
  GDPR covers the whole EEA (and UK), so the data portability right also applies in Liechtenstein.
alsetmusic 6y ago
> I'm asking what you think Apple gains by limiting it to just those countries in the first place or would lose by not limiting it to just those countries. Pretty much all Apple services roll out in phases. From MacWorld Magazine (last year): > As part of its staggered roll-out, the iPhone 11 launched in a total of 30 countries simultaneously on 20 September 2019. Customers in Israel had to wait another six days; and then the day after that, another 28 countries were added to the list. When Steve Jobs introduced new products / services, he would have a slide for the first countries in line, then another slide of the next group. Here's an example: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/52/fa/e1/52fae1ce1b1da1e013412d7250638181.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/52/fa/e1/52fae1ce1b1da1e01341... This isn't Apple ignoring or favoring anyone. It's Apple starting with what they've got so far.

Denvercoder9 6y ago

Easy migration to a competitor could hurt their customer retention. Why offer it at all then? At least in Europe the GDPR requires direct transfer of your data to a competitor where technically possible.

BugsJustFindMe 6y ago
The GDPR (or some similar requirement) only appears to apply to a subset of the chosen countries.
- flipbrad 6y ago
  Note that the GDPR applies to businesses established in Europe, effectively regardless of the location or nationality of users. For instance, the UK authority recognised a US resident's right to invoke GDPR, during the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
  - punnerud 6y ago
    It also apply to every data owned by a citizen living in EU (EU != Europe), regardless of the country the company is located.

jonas21 6y ago

If I had to guess, I'd say that Apple and Google probably have a contract that covers how this transfer takes place, and it takes some amount of effort from their legal teams to ensure that it's a valid contract that complies with the laws of each jurisdiction. As a result, they started with the highest-value jurisdictions like the US and EU first. Regarding Liechtenstein, it is (along with Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland) part of the European Single Market [1] via trade agreements with the EU, so it's possible that it was trivial to adapt whatever contract they were using in the EU to cover them as well. I don't think it's a coincidence that all 4 are on the list -- but again, this is just a guess. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Single_Market https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Single_Market

flipbrad 6y ago
GDPR covers the whole EEA (and UK), so the data portability right also applies in Liechtenstein.

alsetmusic 6y ago

> I'm asking what you think Apple gains by limiting it to just those countries in the first place or would lose by not limiting it to just those countries. Pretty much all Apple services roll out in phases. From MacWorld Magazine (last year): > As part of its staggered roll-out, the iPhone 11 launched in a total of 30 countries simultaneously on 20 September 2019. Customers in Israel had to wait another six days; and then the day after that, another 28 countries were added to the list. When Steve Jobs introduced new products / services, he would have a slide for the first countries in line, then another slide of the next group. Here's an example: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/52/fa/e1/52fae1ce1b1da1e013412d7250638181.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/52/fa/e1/52fae1ce1b1da1e01341... This isn't Apple ignoring or favoring anyone. It's Apple starting with what they've got so far.