As Apple prepares to announce new iPads, the European Commission has designated iPadOS as a “gatekeeper”. This means that under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), iPads will have to undergo the same changes as iPhones. The firm immediately confirmed the news.
Updated May 2, 2024:
Apple released a statement to indicate that it “ will bring recent changes to iOS for apps in the European Union (EU) to iPadOS later this fall “. At the same time, the company announced some concessions on the controversial Core Technology Fee (CTF).
Original article from April 29:
At the beginning of March, the Digital Markets Act (DMA) came into force within the European Union: several large companies such as Apple were designated as gatekeepers Or ” access controllers “. Which means they have to follow stricter rules. At Apple, it was mainly the iPhone which was targeted by the European Commission: but the latter has just designated the iPad, with iPadOS. Overview of the changes that Apple must implement on its touchscreen tablets.
After the iPhone, it’s the iPad’s turn to be bothered by the European Commission
It was in a press release published on April 29 that the European Commission declared that it had designated iPadOS asgatekeeper under the new Digital Markets Act. Apple must therefore make the same changes that it made very recently to iPhone and iOS. To do this, it has six months from today to comply. The appointment is therefore given at the end of October: after the probable release of iPadOS 18.
If iPadOS had not been directly targeted at the beginning of September like iOS or Android, it was because the iPad operating system was below the threshold of 45 million users per month. However, the Commission had opened a market investigation that same day “ to determine whether Apple’s iPadOS […] constitutes an important gateway for business users to reach end users and should therefore be designated as gatekeeper”.
The conclusions are clear: the Commission considers that “the number of end users was close to the threshold and is expected to increase in the near future “. She also writes that iPad users are stuck on iPadOS and that Apple discourages them from switching to Android, for example. Which also means that application publishers must work with Apple to continue to exist.
What will change for iPads in the coming months
iOS and iPadOS being very close operating systems, a priori, all the changes from the iPhone will also be present on the iPads. Which means that it is the end of the App Store monopoly: other application stores may arrive. And the applications can be installed directly from a web browser. What also unlocks thecloud gamingon iPad: no need to use a browser.
It is also the end of the Apple Pay monopoly: we can use other payment protocols, which eliminates Apple’s commission from banks in particular. Furthermore, Safari’s competitors are free: they are no longer forced to use WebKit, the engine imposed by Apple. It will also be possible to uninstall any or almost any pre-installed application from the iPad. Finally, Apple should be forced to make switching from an iPad to an Android tablet easier.
It should be remembered that the European Commission has criticized the way in which Apple applied the DMA: an investigation is also open on several subjects. At issue: the App Store rules which remain very restrictive for application publishers. There are also the prices charged by Apple for the distribution of applications outside its store. If investigations find a violation of the DMA, the European Commission could impose fines of up to 10% of Apple’s global annual turnover.
Towards more services concerned?
On March 1, Booking, ByteDance and X contacted the Commission regarding their services which could meet the thresholds of the Digital Markets Act. The Commission has 45 days to render its decision: the deadline is therefore scheduled for May 13.
For Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, work on the appointment ofgatekeepersis not finished. He precised : “We continue to monitor market developments and will not hesitate to open further investigations if other services below the thresholds have characteristics that allow them to be considered important gateways for business users.»