Apple's decision to drop iPhone web apps comes under scrutiny in the EU

Someone from the commission actually got into contact with me today after I filled out the OWA questionnaire.

Because Apple products are just so much easier to use than anything else...I just have to tap here and then there, then swipe left, no right, no hold and then swipe left, and tap and hold and...wait, no that's not right, let me just go back to home screen using my home button...where is the home button...that's right I just have to hold and wait...no swipe down, no, up, swipe up...but not at the bottom, in the middle and here we are, all the apps...you could ever want and all so easy to use.

I've switched between ios and android a few times, but currently on iOS.

* I would say the hardware is actually not as good as most Androids (my screen scratches, alloy AL/Ti are absolutely dumb material choices for something like a dentable phone). Up until recently, Android had expandable storage on android via SD cards, but that's pretty much gone these days. Androids typically lacked dumb things that drive up phone price on iPhones, but they've been hard at work on closing this gap and making things more pricey for no reason... but generally the phones are far more durable and repairable.

* The iOS software isn't as great in many many areas (Google voice to text works far better, texting actually works to the outside world, no shared filesystem folders like "Downloads", anti-competitive behavior with other brands of smartwatches like Garmin, you can't actually turn an iPhone off, many many other artificial dumb limitations)

* but iOS is better in some areas: Google is not vacuuming up personal life and monetizing it (when google does it, its "business" when others do it, is "hacking"), iCloud clipboard sync is a neat trick if you have a Mac, iMessage on Mac is a great experience, FaceTime works pretty danged well, international eSim experience is actually quite good on iOS, iCloud keychain and sync is actually pretty good)

I think after this iPhone dies or Apple slows it down enough, I'm going to switch to GrapheneOS and figure out how to replace iOS keychain sync/clipboard sync.

Yes this! If you like using Apple products, you should be able to continue to use them. Those that don't like this should be free not to use them, it is not like there are not other mobile phones/tablets out there.

What I really dislike are people who say we shouldn't have a choice in the experience we want.

The only alternative is not a feasible replacement, especially not in a corporate setting.

It’s not really a solution. You have only two players. It’s almost like a utility service.

You can disable auto-updates in settings.

If you add the PWA to the home screen from say Chrome then Chrome should run the PWA. If you uninstall Chrome then the app is removed from the home screen.

Use the system default browser engine (which would require system browser engines to support PWAs).

You could let people customize it per-PWA, but that's extra complexity for a small niche. Just let people pick a system browser.

Just let me pick if I want multiple browser engines. I would rather have only WebKit, but still being able to use PWAs.

Especially since this is a stupid geofenced restriction: "only because I live in the wrong part of the world I can't get notifications" sounds like quite a stupid thing to do.

You choose whatever browser you want for any PWA you happen to want to use. The OS will put a small badge on the icon which shows the browser responsible for running it. If things go south you know which browser to blame. You can install multiple versions of the app using different browsers and compare them, then only keep the one which you like best.

Freedom of choice is a good thing - for users.

I doubt any of them would. See how Meta bends itself backwards even though as a web service it would be the easiest to turn the lights off. And even if, are there no reasonable other alternatives? Plus even USA companies would love to jump on such a huge market vacuum.

That's a lot less feasible for a physical device seller. It's much easier to block importation of a physical device than it is to have country-wide/continent-wide firewalls.

I don’t agree with your comment. I see 2 scenario based on your assumptions: 1 - The companies are making way too much money in the EU and are willing to go through “fines and fees carefully engineered” (which by the way are called laws and regulations). I take for example the case of China where laws and regulations are more tricky and we see Apple or Microsoft thriving there. 2 - Let’s say that the companies are saying “fuck this shit” and actually leave EU. Then I go back to the example of China where you have local players emerging (Bilibili, Baidu, Weibo or Wechat etc…) to bridge the gap and meet the need.

Overall, I support these regulations, I believe that Apple reached a size and a central position in the life of too many people, at some point it needs to be controlled, coerced (or dismantled) to make sure that it doesn’t spin out of control. Same applies for the other companies targeted by the DMA, their size is just too big to allow smaller players to emerge.