by Dan Moren
EC mandates Apple provide iOS interoperability on several fronts
Third-party smartwatches and wireless headphones are among the devices and technologies that Apple will have to provide better interoperability with, according to a ruling from the European Commission today.
The EC concluded the proceedings it launched last fall into Apple’s interoperability with third-party devices, and has identified several places that Apple needs to make changes.
…the specification decision on connected devices aims to enable, amongst others, the following improvements:
- iPhone users will have enhanced possibilities to receive push notifications including pictures on their non-Apple smartwatch and reply to these notifications.
- iPhone users will also be able to pair their non-Apple connected devices such as headphones and smartwatches more seamlessly and easily with the iPhone.
- Non-Apple devices such as virtual reality headsets will benefit from better and faster data connections with the iPhone.
- Developers will be able to integrate alternative solutions to Apple’s AirDrop and AirPlay services on the iPhone. As a result, iPhone users will be able to choose from different and innovative services to share files with other users and cast media content from their iPhones to TVs.
There is a lot to unpack there. The aforelinked document goes into more detail about not only what exactly is required, but also the timeframe on which the various features need to be put into place.
When these proceedings were announced, I wrote that they seemed “vague”, but it’s hard to argue that the findings here aren’t concrete. I can’t imagine that Apple is thrilled about them—and, indeed, in a statement provided to MacRumors, Apple says:
“Today’s decisions wrap us in red tape, slowing down Apple’s ability to innovate for users in Europe and forcing us to give away our new features for free to companies who don’t have to play by the same rules. It’s bad for our products and for our European users. We will continue to work with the European Commission to help them understand our concerns on behalf of our users.”
While some of these decisions do seem as though they would improve consumer choice, such as implementing audio switching for third-party headphones and allowing competitors’ smartwatches to show pictures received in notifications, but I am a little more skeptical when it comes to requiring competition to features like AirDrop and AirPlay.
In the case of the former, unless you are talking about allowing cross-platform file transfer with non-Apple platforms, like Android and Windows, I’m unsure what the benefit is. In the latter, AirPlay is not only available on most other platforms, but there are also existing third-party standards like Google’s Cast.
As another part of this proceeding, businesses will have the right to ask Apple about how various features work and then submit a request for interoperability with their products. Which, again, feels well-meaning, but also feels like it could open up a can of worms where anywhere from dozens to thousands of vendors want to request specific interoperability.
As always with the DMA, there are no shortage of both upsides and downsides to the legislation. But with the EC requesting some of these features be implemented in beta as early as this year, it certainly seems as though Apple has its work cut out for it.