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Comment by mrangle | Hacker News Reader

Apple has its act together. Those, who are not Apple, do not in comparison. They are Big Mad that Apple does.

You don't understand the term "rent seeking". Because in this case, it's Apple's competitors that are rent seeking by utilizing the force of the government to make Apple give competitors access to its private but non-monopolistic ecosystem.

I think that Apple should call that bluff and leave the EU.

Which in turn will increase public pressure on the EU, but not as functionally as it would in a democratic system.

All hollow talk. It will lose all of its aggression the moment that Apple leaves the EU, and EU citizens are left with the remaining options.

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Totally, the Spaniards are on the edge against EU for forcing Apple to allow competing services on %25 of the smartphones they use. Madrid is pouring police force into Barcelona as we speak as the Catalans started burning cars on the streets against the unelected bureaucrats threatening them to give App Store alternatives to every 4th smartphone. Unjustified violence by the police is being reported against people who don't want to know about cheaper payment options. The situation is considered stable at this point but I don't think that EU will survive if Apple pulls out of EU. The president of the EU commission was caught mumbling at the mic "Ich hoffe, Apple ruft nicht an oder blufft, sonst ist alles verloren." which roughly translates to "I hope Apple doesn't call or bluff or all is lost" in Bavarian.

Interested in learning more, do you have links to the sources?

It's joke :) It was impossible to give it a serious reply, so...

They're being facetious.

But here's a source for future readers: https://justpaste.it/jog4v

For sure. It's easy to joke about public sentiment when the government is in no way accountable to public opinion. A high effort joke for autocrats.

That might be a very risky bet. Currently a lot of people are looking for alternatives of US products, if Apple gets out of the EU, it might not be that easy to get back as the market might have drastically shifted.

> All hollow talk. It will lose all of its aggression the moment that Apple leaves the EU, and EU citizens are left with the remaining options.

People in Europe (and everywhere else that isn't the US) are already using these "remaining options" more than they use Apple products by a massive margin. Apple products are not nearly as popular in Europe as they are in the US because more people realize that the price tag is not proportional to the quality you get.

The pricetag is proportional.

Affording it is another discussion.

If Apple weren't popular, then its payment control within its own system wouldn't matter.

People like you keep forgetting that the EU is the single largest consumer market in the world. This does not mean that Apple gets most of it revenue from the EU, but it's still a sweet $90B in 2024.

In which world does a company give up on close to $100B in revenue out of spite?

In a hypothetical world where it threatens $1T of revenue.

The app store monopoly is being threatened everywhere that isn't America.

It isn't a monopoly. iphones are not a public utility, and anyone can buy a different phone on which they can install apps.

>private but non-monopolistic ecosystem.

Isn't it a monopoly over Iphone users?

Dude the force of government is us, democratically voting, in a free society. Either respect our law, or don't do business here.

Amen. This American hatred for the government is very tiresome.

No one hates government. Such a petulant response over not agreeing with your government is childish. Last, you don't agree with every decision by every government.

It isn't, Dude. No one but children believe that, especially in the case of the EU.

I agree that they shouldn't do business in the EU.

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