Rui Carmo
Reading through this makes me realize there has been no real progress on app distribution or improvements in Apple’s App Store ecosystem regarding openness over the part decade, and that besides these changes flying in the face of EU requirements, real, live, actual sideloading is still a pipe dream–there is absolutely no way it’s become feasible for the individual user, and new app stores and browser engines are still hampered by various restrictions.
(As an aside, I am particularly amused at the availability of game streaming apps, and would like to take this opportunity to thank Apple for forcing me to buy an NVIDIA Shield to use them for the past four years, because it has turned out to be a much better piece of hardware than the Apple TV, which they continue to blunder and neglect as a product–but I digress.)
Most of the “additions” like payment features and NFC access are things that should have been there from the start, and it is clear to anyone with a modicum of technical knowledge (let alone folk like me who worked literally decades in the mobile industry) that Apple has done the absolute minimum to “comply” to a degree that should be transparent to even the dimmest bureaucrats in Brussels.
Your move, EU. And try to make sure fining Apple for hindering music streaming wasn’t a one-off heavily driven by industry lobbyists, OK? Because multi-year investigations just don’t cut it anymore.