LTA 127: March 2024

Panel:

• Bart Busschots (host) – @bbusschots

This solo show starts with some followups from last month before diving into just a few regulatory and legal stories, some HR and acquisitions news, and a few highlights from Apple’s services and original content. The three main stories are the Digital Markets Act (again), the US DOJ’s Anti-Trust case against Apple, and some VisionPro Developments. The show finishes with a rundown of some other quick Apple-related stories that made the news in March.

You’ll find detailed show notes below the fold, and if you enjoy this free show, please consider clicking on the donate button at the top of the left side bar – the show is free for you to listen to, but not for Bart to Produce!

Updates & Followup

Quick updates to long-running stories the show continues to track, and to stories covered in recent shows.

• Apple walks away empty handed at the Oscars — appleinsider.com/… (13 nominations, 10 for Killers of the Flower Moon & 3 for Napoleon)

• More AI Developments:

  • Apple acquires fundamental AI smarts by buying DarwinAI — www.cultofmac.com/…
  • Apple AI research: ReALM is smaller, faster than GPT-4 when parsing contextual data — appleinsider.com/…
  • Reuters are reporting that Apple has paid Shutterstock somewhere between $25M & $50M for access to millions of photos and videos for AI training — www.cultofmac.com/…

Regulatory Rundown

• Oregon governor signs nation’s first right-to-repair bill that bans parts pairing — arstechnica.com/…

Legal Latest

• Apple -v- Epic: Epic wants Apple held in contempt of court for not following through on removing anti-steering measures — appleinsider.com/…

  • Apple speaks out against Epic's contempt of court accusation — appleinsider.com/… (Apple insist they are in compliance and quoted their compliance statement to the court, and the original court ruling to support their POV)

• With the US Epic-v-Apple case officially over, the case in Australia has been un-paused, and merged with Epic's case against Google in that country (and the court expects it to last months) — appleinsider.com/…

• Masimo -v- Apple: Apple made their case to the US Court of Appeals requesting that the US International Trade Commission (ITS) ruling against it be overturned on two grounds (listed below), Masimo now get to submit a rebuttal before the court will rule — appleinsider.com/…

  1. Because Masimo didn't actually have a product, just a CAD drawing, the ITC over-stepped their authority
  2. The patents the ITC based their decision on are fundamentally flawed, and were updated by Masimo after the Apple Watch was released in an attempt to "ensnare" Apple's real product

• Share Holders -v- Apple: Apple have agreed to settle a long-running shareholder lawsuit that claimed Tim Cook mislead investors in Apple's last earnings call in 2018, which led up to a very rare revision of expected revenue in January 2019 – the crux was Cook down-playing problems in the Chinese market in 2018 before blaming those problems for the revision in 2019. The settlement is reported to be $490M, which Apple Insider point out is less than 1 day's earnings (or $61M per word!) — appleinsider.com/…

Apple HR & Acquisition News

• Apple lays off 600 employees, mostly from Apple Car project — appleinsider.com/… or Apple’s First Post-Pandemic Layoffs Affect Over 700 Workers — www.macobserver.com/…
• The Browser Company poaches Apple Safari design team member — appleinsider.com/… (Charlie Deets, apparently one of Safari's two lead designers)
• Apple's newest hire is another step towards ads in Apple TV+ — appleinsider.com/… (NBCUniversal ad exec Joseph Cady)

Apple Services & Original Content Highlights

• Apple Arcade's April additions include two with Apple Vision Pro support — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple TV+ teams up with Lionel Messi for one-month free trial of MLS Season Pass — appleinsider.com/…
• Apple Savings gets first ever interest rate cut — appleinsider.com/…
• Stripe adds Apple Pay Later as a default option for merchants — appleinsider.com/…

Main Stories

• Probably related to main story 1 or 2 or both: Apple amends its App Review Guidelines world-wide to allow Mini apps, mini games, streaming games, chatbots, plug-ins, and some game emulators — www.macstories.net/…

  "Apps may offer certain software that is not embedded in the binary, specifically HTML5 mini apps and mini games, streaming games, chatbots, and plug-ins. Additionally, retro game console emulator apps can offer to download games"

  • There are a lot of restrictions on the games that can be offered by emulators, including a requirement that the full catalogue of all available games be published at a URL, and depending on interpretation, perhaps only the owners of the original games can offer them in emulation. Users running their own ROMs does not seem to fit the current guidelines — arstechnica.com/…

1. Apple and the European Commission continue their back-and-forth over the Digital Markets Act (DMA)

   • Apple reversed their revocation of Epic Games' Swedish developer account — daringfireball.net/…

     • Following Apple's reversal, Epic announced it will be opening an EU store with a 12% revenue share with Epic — www.macobserver.com/…

   • Apple continues to loosen restrictions on its EU App Store — sixcolors.com/…

     • Single-vendor app stores will be permitted after all

     • The templates for external payment links are now optional

     • Large developers in good standing (2 years on the App Store & 1M downloads in previous year) will be permitted to distribute apps directly from their websites without any App Store (apps will still need notarisation, so not true side-loading)

       • The feature has appeared in the iOS 17.5 beta — appleinsider.com/…

   • The EU held a public 'workshop' where all parties could air their opinions on Apple's compliance, or lack there of, with the commission and Apple – Apple defended their position, but did admit something needs to be done about the possibility of a viral app bankrupting a small developer because of the Core Platform Fee — appleinsider.com/…

   • A few days after the workshop the EU officially launched violation investigations into Apple, Google & Meta: appleinsider.com/…, sixcolors.com/… & arstechnica.com/…

     • Full text of the complaints — ec.europa.eu/…

     • The Commissions Concerns Regarding Apple:

       • Is Apple's new European fee structure in compliance with the DMA?
       • Has Apple sufficiently loosened their anti-steering rules in Europe?
       • Is Apple's browser choice screen good enough?
       • Does Apple allow enough apps to be un-installed?

   • Related: Following the EC's massive €1.84Bn fine last month over anticompetitive practices in streaming music, Apple have added an entitlement to the App Store to allow Music streaming services in Europe to link out to their website for payments, and even to ask for email addresses to contact users directly (but as with similar payment processing opt-outs, Apple still expect a 27% cut of the revenue) — www.reuters.com/…

     • There are reports the EU are not happy that this change is sufficient, and are investigating, but there has been no official announcement (yet?) — appleinsider.com/…

2. The US DOJ joins the fray! — sues Apple for Anti-trust

   • US DOJ attacks nearly every aspect of Apple's business in massive antitrust suit — appleinsider.com/…

   • Apple CarPlay is anticompetitive, too, US lawsuit alleges — www.theverge.com/…

   • Apple responds to DOJ antitrust lawsuit by refuting every claim — appleinsider.com/…

   • The DOJ's 5 Headline Allegations:

     1. Apple does not allow Super Apps in the App Store
     2. Apple unfairly limits game-streaming services
     3. Apple unfairly denies 3rd-party messaging apps access to SMS
     4. Apple unfairly diminishes the functionality of non-Apple smart watches
     5. Apple unfairly limits digital wallets

   • The case has been brought under the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890(!!!), which doesn't actually define what a monopoly is, but case law in different courts falls in a range mostly between 70% & 80% with one case saying it might be possible for there to be a monopoly from as low as 55% in some cases.

     • Apple's current share of units in the US is about 64%, and it's world-wide unit share is about 23%
     • The DOJ's case states Apple's market provenance not in unit sales as has been the case in all previous suits, but in revenue share, which puts Apple at 65%
     • The DOJ go further than flipping to a novel measure, and invent a new market 'performance smartphones', and they say Apple has a 70% share of this market

   • Analysis: Understanding the DOJ's Antitrust Complaint Against Apple — www.macstories.net/…

   • Opinion:

     • Gruber's critique of AG Garland's remarks regarding wallets (it shows the DOJ just do not understand how electronic payments work), and market share (they're seriously reaching) — daringfireball.net/…
     • U.S. versus Apple: A first reaction — sixcolors.com/…
     • Apple will crush the DoJ in court if Garland sticks with outdated arguments — appleinsider.com/…
     • Why the DOJ’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple is weak — www.cultofmac.com/…

3. Some notable Apple Vision Pro/visionOS Developments

   • VisionOS gets a nice update with Spatial Personas — sixcolors.com/…

     • In FaceTime users can now break out of their frames, and share a 3D space with each other
     • With SharePlay, participants can share a single 3D space with each other, and enjoy content, or, work on a shared document or thing
     • The personas also look a lot better than their did in version 1.0 of the feature

   • Other AR/VR platforms are coming on board with VisionOS

     • NVIDIA's shared VR environment technology is coming to Apple Vision Pro — appleinsider.com/…
     • Apple Vision Pro gains Niantic tech to open up more AR experiences — appleinsider.com/…

   • The Apple Vision Pro is on its way to China soon(ish)?

     • Tim Cook says China will get Apple Vision Pro later in 2024 — appleinsider.com/…
     • China’s Tencent throws its massive weight behind Vision Pro — www.cultofmac.com/…
     • Related: there's still one hurdle in Apple's way though: Apple’s Vision Pro Trademark Headache in China Isn’t Going Anywhere — www.macobserver.com/… (Huawei own the Chinese trademark for 'Vision Pro', and they don't seem at all interested in giving it up, and Apple's application for a trademark on 'Apple Vision Pro' is still under review)

Quick Stories

• Some nice updates to Apple's website:

  • Apple now has a good landing page to find manuals, specs, and downloads — appleinsider.com/…
  • New Apple Website Helps You Find out Why You Should Upgrade Your iPhone — www.macobserver.com/…

• iWork 14 brings useful tweaks to Pages, Numbers and Keynote — www.cultofmac.com/…

• Apple Quietly Adds 15W Qi2 Wireless Charging Support to iPhone 12 — www.macobserver.com/…

• WWDC 2024 Scheduled for June 10–14 — tidbits.com/… (Apple's Press Release)

  • New ‘Apple Developer’ YouTube Channel Debuts Ahead of WWDC 2024 — www.macobserver.com/…
  • 350 Swift Student Challenge winners awarded AirPods Max, chance to attend WWDC — appleinsider.com/…
  • Related: Apple has a new Swift tutorials webpage for budding developers — appleinsider.com/…

Legend

Note: When the textual description of a link is part of the link it is the title of the page being linked to, when the text describing a link is not part of the link it is a description written by Bart.