European Commission Designates iPadOS a DMA ‘Gatekeeping’ Platform Too
European Commission press release (italics added):
On 5 September 2023, the Commission designated Apple as a
gatekeeper for its operating system iOS, its browser Safari and
its App Store. On the same day, the Commission opened a market
investigation to assess whether Apple’s iPadOS, despite not
meeting the quantitative thresholds laid down in the DMA,
constitutes an important gateway for business users to reach end
users and therefore should be designated as a gatekeeper.
The rules are what the EC commissioners decide they are, not what the DMA says. Among their reasons cited:
End users are locked-in to iPadOS. Apple leverages its large
ecosystem to disincentivise end users from switching to other
operating systems for tablets.
Business users are locked-in to iPadOS because of its large and
commercially attractive user base, and its importance for certain
use cases, such as gaming apps.
The “lock-in” is basically just features exclusive to Apple’s own platforms. I’m not even sure how Apple could possibly create a platform without “lock-in”.
On the other hand, iPadOS is clearly more of a marketing distinction than a technical one. It’s iOS under the hood, so I doubt it’ll be much trouble for Apple to apply its DMA compliance features from iOS to iPadOS. I would have been surprised if the EC had not decided to designate iPadOS a “gatekeeping” platform, and I’m guessing Apple itself is unsurprised as well.
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European Commission press release (italics added):
On 5 September 2023, the Commission designated Apple as a
gatekeeper for its operating system iOS, its browser Safari and
its App Store. On the same day, the Commission opened a market
investigation to assess whether Apple’s iPadOS, despite not
meeting the quantitative thresholds laid down in the DMA,
constitutes an important gateway for business users to reach end
users and therefore should be designated as a gatekeeper.
The rules are what the EC commissioners decide they are, not what the DMA says. Among their reasons cited:
End users are locked-in to iPadOS. Apple leverages its large
ecosystem to disincentivise end users from switching to other
operating systems for tablets.
Business users are locked-in to iPadOS because of its large and
commercially attractive user base, and its importance for certain
use cases, such as gaming apps.
The “lock-in” is basically just features exclusive to Apple’s own platforms. I’m not even sure how Apple could possibly create a platform without “lock-in”.
On the other hand, iPadOS is clearly more of a marketing distinction than a technical one. It’s iOS under the hood, so I doubt it’ll be much trouble for Apple to apply its DMA compliance features from iOS to iPadOS. I would have been surprised if the EC had not decided to designate iPadOS a “gatekeeping” platform, and I’m guessing Apple itself is unsurprised as well.