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The EU should, like they did years ago with PC operating systems, mandate a default browser selection screen. And a default messenger selection screen. And a de
by trynumber9 3y ago
The EU should, like they did years ago with PC operating systems, mandate a default browser selection screen. And a default messenger selection screen. And a default app store selection screen.
Not that we'd get it in the US but it would help reduce Apple/Google market capture efforts.
- gafage 3y ago>And a default messenger selection screen. What for? Everybody in the EU already uses whatsapp. That shows how unnecessary these selection screens are.
- i5-2520M 3y agoIncorrect meme, almost no one is on whatsapp in Hungary for example. We use Messenger, Viber mainly and other social media apps that have a chat feature.
- gafage 3y agoSo basically you are making my own argument: we use tons of different apps. What would be the selection screen useful for? Going further: if we download different messengers, it stands to reason we can download different browsers, therefore if safari is the most used it's because it's the one we choose.
- School-Cotton 3y agoCommon case of people seeing that something is common in Western Europe and Latin America and then claiming “the U.S. is the only country that doesn’t do X”. Happens all the time.
- 3836293648 3y agoThat's assuming Europe is way more homogeneus that it is. I have never heard of anyone using whatsapp in Sweden
- not2b 3y agoThat's probably why Apple will get away with keeping iMessage closed (unless the US government pushes them), probably not enough European use to count as a gatekeeper.
- schrodinger 3y agoYou say that like it's a bad thing ("get away"). iMessage has nowhere near a majority and Apple doesn't put in any restrictions against alternative messaging software (…not that they're perfect, and haven't in other areas…).
- not2b 3y agoI don't believe in closed protocols or crappy interoperability. There are several approaches that could improve things, like adopting Google's encryption improvements to RCS so that mixed iPhone/Android conversations are secure ("but that's not in the standard!", well, then, get it or something similar in the standard); they don't have to let others into iMessage necessarily. Apple claims to care strongly about their users' privacy and correctly attacks Google for caring a whole lot less. Encrypted, full-featured messaging would benefit their own users.
- aaomidi 3y agoNah I rather them do what they’re doing right now and enforce chat applications be cross platform.
- madeofpalk 3y ago'Nobody' in the EU uses iMessage, even on iPhones. Everyone here already uses Whatsapp. This demonstrates a lack of a monopoly and how competition can flourish. Honestly - and EU-regulation that Apple faces over iMessage would just be collateral damage from EU targeting Whatsapp.
- dgellow 3y agoWhatsApp and Telegram (varies by country)
- NBJack 3y agoI mean, if everyone is using Whatsapp, that is effectively a monopoly. I am curious as to what the runner ups are in the EU however. Meanwhile, wait until Mr. Zuckerberg looks for new ideas to monetize their messaging ecosystem.
- Semaphor 3y agoBoth Telegram and Signal. Threema is a distant 3rd ime.
- chmod775 3y agoThere's no monopoly. Messengers hardly have any lock-in and there's plenty of competition available. Entire continents will switch messengers essentially overnight once the current market leader becomes too enshittified and there's something better. Remember how AOL, ICQ, MSN, Skype, etc. died? WhatsApp is the current leader because it's no-nonsense and works everywhere. The moment Facebook fucks that up even a little bit, people will have moved on to the next thing.
- ImJamal 3y agoThere is major lock-in. If I want to move Signal but everybody I message uses WhatsApp then I can't message them unless they switch.
- 3y ago
- rglullis 3y agoLet's think higher than that. Let's just get rid of megacorporations: let's mandate that any company with more than amount of X employees should be broken down into smaller divisions, with a separate board and CEO, and make it that no one can be on more than one board at the same time. Make X low enough, 250, and all of this would go away: no more corporatism, no more monopolies, no more special groups interests paying for government lobbying, no more abuse of power from a handful of companies...
- spacephysics 3y agoThis sounds like some utopic conjecture, that honestly, wouldn’t solve the root problem
- tombozi 3y agoAs with any system, it is just a matter of time before loopholes are found and exploited.
- judge2020 3y agoSure, it might seem appealing to do this now, but had this existed 20 years ago the convenience and pros of the Apple ecosystem wouldn't exist. You don't get the hardware+software experience that Apple provides. You'd get stuff like handoff (such as the handoff to Homepod functionality where you tap your phone to the top of it) maybe 10 years later when enough people finally get together to make a standard for it. Apple Silicon and the Rosetta translation layer never happens.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoHow many people are still using safari on Mac? Everyone I know uses chrome, but maybe that’s just in the states?
- nomel 3y agoChrome being viable is fairly recent: https://9to5google.com/2023/02/28/chrome-safari-battery-life/#:~:text=1)%20with%20Chrome%20110.0.,Apple%20TV%20app%20movie%20playback https://9to5google.com/2023/02/28/chrome-safari-battery-life.... In fact, I didn't realize it's actually viable until now.
- 123sereusername 3y agoI live in the states and dropped Chrome for Safari Pick your poison.
- caseyohara 3y agoI use Safari as my daily driver on Mac because it syncs nicely with my iPhone and iPad (I don't see any point using a browser besides Safari on iOS/ipadOS), and is better on battery life. I also regularly use Chrome on Mac for things like front-end development.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoI’m the opposite. The only reason I ever use chrome on my iPad to s because I need to use my password manager (since I use chrome for everything on my desktops). Even my non techie wife uses chrome on her MBP (and I didn’t set it up for her).
- caseyohara 3y agoYou really should use a password manager that is separate from your browser.
- CharlesW 3y agoAccording to StatCounter, Safari has a 13% browser market share on desktops. (Similarweb shows 11% on desktops, so not terribly different.) https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/desktop/worldwide https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share/desktop/worl...
- samcat116 3y agoFamously those default selection screens for browsers failed horrendously.
- trynumber9 3y agoDid it? Firefox still has lingering popularity in Europe it doesn't have elsewhere.
- jeroenhd 3y agoThe EU's DMA is supposed to basically do this: break up gatekeepers and closed platforms for user choice. Not every app needs to be compatible with every other app, though. There is a user base cutoff (and even then there is some room for interpretation) of 45 million users (10% of the EU population)/10k business users. Negotiations aren't done yet, but it seems iMessage isn't popular enough to meet this cutoff. Alternatives like WhatsApp definitely are, though; I'm pretty sure that's exactly why Facebook is working on cross-platform messaging for WhatsApp: https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/10/23866912/whatsapp-cross-platform-messaging-eu-dma-meta https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/10/23866912/whatsapp-cross-p... This law doesn't just effect chat app developers: it also applies to app stores and other methods of digital gatekeeping. That being said, Apple argues the app store for its iPads aren't popular enough to cross the threshold (they split up the iOS app store and the iPadOS app store in their statistics), so the impact of these requirements will depend on what specific iDevice you use.
- turquoisevar 3y agoNo, thank you. When the EU forced that implementation, it was already behind the ball. It all but ensured Chrome’s dominance by killing Firefox’s momentum and proved unsuccessful, which is why the browser selection screen got killed.