Google despatched a letter to European regulators asking them to liberate Apple’s iMessage for all platforms, in response to a report from the Financial Times Wednesday. The EU Fee mentioned Apple is gatekeeping iMessage in September, and Google’s letter unnecessarily chimes in to say “we agree.”
European regulators are at present investigating whether or not Apple ought to be required to adjust to the Digital Markets Act, which might power iMessage to be seamlessly appropriate with all messaging platforms, resembling Android and WhatsApp. A Google senior vice chairman and different telecom executives declare that Apple’s providers meet the thresholds of the act, and ought to be regulated to “profit European shoppers and companies,” in a letter seen by Monetary Occasions reporters.
Apple’s iconic blue textual content bubbles over iMessage are a key think about retaining buyer loyalty. In 2019, Samsung launched an anti-bullying marketing campaign of GIFs to fight children who had been bullied over their green text bubbles.
The Digital Markets Act defines gatekeepers as “massive on-line platforms that present an vital gateway between enterprise customers and shoppers, whose place can grant them the facility to create a bottleneck within the digital financial system.” Google’s letter says that’s the “elementary nature” of iMessage.
Whereas Google chimed in on Apple’s anticompetitive practices, it’s additionally beneath the regulators’ magnifying glass. The Digital Markets Act designates Google Play, Google Maps, Chrome and extra providers as gatekeepers as properly. The search large additionally faces its personal platter of antitrust lawsuits right here within the US.
Google, Apple, and the EU Fee didn’t instantly reply to Gizmodo’s request for remark.
Apple has beforehand acknowledged, nonetheless, that iMessage doesn’t represent an vital gateway “attributable to its small scale relative to different messaging providers.” The variety of iMessage customers was estimated to be 1.3 billion in 2022, whereas WhatsApp had 2.4 billion customers in the identical 12 months.
“Shoppers at present have entry to all kinds of messaging apps, and infrequently use many without delay, which displays how simple it’s to modify between them,” mentioned Apple in the identical assertion. “Shoppers at present have entry to all kinds of messaging apps, and infrequently use many without delay, which displays how simple it’s to modify between them.”
The fee has till February to achieve a choice on the matter.
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