Hacker News Reader

Comment by A4ET8a8uTh0 | Hacker News Reader

And this probably should give everyone an idea of how powerful EU is an economic entity despite being more internally divided than US. Naturally, as moves go ( edit: for Apple ), it is very rational ( and as some already noted, it is not that dissimilar to what some car makers do -- provide tools, but at ridiculous cost and hoops to jump through ).

It is absolutely a step in the right direction.

View on HN

This program was in the US first.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2022/04/apples-self-service-r...

What does this have to do with the EU and the US? The program just launched in 8 European countries, 7 of which are in the EU, several months after launching in the US. I don't see any clear pattern that has to do with the EU considering the program was launched in a non-EU country first and still isn't available in much of the EU.

Are you suggesting Apple provided this program out of their good will? In a very real sense, were it not for the strength of EU as an economic block, this would not have happened.

I don't think Apple cares that much about EU legislation. Given their location, I think it's more likely they're paying attention to legislation in California and getting out ahead of that.

> Are you suggesting Apple provided this program out of their good will?

No. I'm not sure where you found that in my comment, but to clarify, I'm genuinely curious what you claim is the link to the EU given that this wasn't rolled out in the EU first and still isn't available in most of the EU.

I kind of agree with you but if this was just about EU power how do you explain rolling this out the UK at the same time?

If this was just about appeasing the EU then Apple would surely not have included the UK.

(Disclosure, I'm British and very pro-EU.)

Hmm, that is a good counter. Off the top of my head, I can't. It does not automatically invalidate the argument, but it does significantly weaken it. Maybe there is something here I am missing.

Most people don't see the EU as weak, just ineffectual. But it was definitely the EU that got them to do all this.

It's dubious but the USB-C coming to iPhone should be credited to the EU.

Yeah the USB-C thing was done entirely by the EU, the repair program was from the combined pressure from regulators around the world.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com