For example:

  • You MUST use Apple’s own apps (iMessage, Phone, etc.) as well as Apple’s own App Store
    • To be fair, the EU is doing work to solve this particular issue…but most of the reforms are only for EU customers
  • You have to use WebKit when developing a browser for macOS iOS and iPadOS, you can’t use Gecko or Blink
  • iOS apps must be developed using XCode IF YOU WANT TO PUBLISH IT ON THE APP STORE, which is only available on MacOS…

That last one is weird. Why can’t you compile Swift outside of MacOS (i.e. third party IDEs)? Why can only XCode do it?

edit: Gecko and Blink based browsers are available on macOS. I learnt something new today. Not for iOS or iPadOS though. Also, Xcode is only a requirement for publishing in the App Store. You are able to compile Swift in any OS. You’ll just need to distribute the app via sideloading and/or third-party app stores (in the EU)

  • Zerlyna@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    6 days ago

     did license macOS out several decades ago. There were issues between hardware and software so they quit and brought it back under their umbrella so it’s integrated. That’s my understanding.  was nothing much when the iPhone came out.

  • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    8 days ago

    Because it’s the top American company. US protects Apple and allies can’t work against that. Now that US and EU relationship is deteriorating we’ll see loads of lawsuits against Apple pop up in Europe.

          • aesthelete@lemmy.world
            0·
            7 days ago

            Eh, they’re perceived as more “lefty” than most of the stereotypically “patriotic” corporations of the US.

            There are a couple of reasons for this: (1) Steve Jobs has/had a “crunchy granola” reputation (despite likely being a crypto fascist) due to likening himself to civil rights leaders and other “woke” people and living in California, and (2) they have a large amount of usage by people in the creative arts such as music producers, visual artists, and other people who the right would call “woke” without blinking an eye.

            I think it’s all perception, and they are easily just as fascistic as the rest of the corporations. But they try to stay on the good side of a lot of people that care deeply – or at least claim to care deeply – about eroding democratic norms, and the rolling back of people’s rights and that produce a lot of the cultural artifacts the right largely hates, but are broadly-speaking massively popular.

  • Classy Hatter@sopuli.xyz
    0·
    8 days ago

    Apple actually open sourced Swift language, and it’s available for other operating systems as well: https://www.swift.org/

    Xcode is the app you need to use, if you want to submit your app to macOS or iOS App Store. You can build macOS apps with other tools, but you can’t distribute them in the App Store. There are developers who sell their apps through their own websites, or through other marketplaces, such as Steam. And while you can build iOS apps with other tools as well, it’s mostly pointless as you can’t distribute them, because iPhone doesn’t support sideloading. Jailbroken iPhones are an exemption to that.

    • sbird@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      7 days ago

      ah that makes sense. So you need to use Xcode if you want to be on the App Store. So you can still use third-party apps, but you’ll either need to distribute via sideloading or an alternative app store (in the EU)

    • quack@lemmy.zip
      0·
      7 days ago

      You don’t have to jailbreak to sideload apps on iOS and this hasn’t been the case for a long time. The problem is that if you’re not in the EU, it’s still not as straightforward as it really should be. But it can be done.

  • heavydust@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    8 days ago

    You have to use WebKit on macOS

    This is a lie. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself?

    Edit: downvoting won’t make your story true. You’re wrong and the existence of Chrome and Firefox proves that you’re an idiot.

  • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de
    0·
    8 days ago

    Swift (the programming language) can be used on other operating systems too, just not for iOS development.

    I’ve been wondering this since I first heard of the iPhone’s “app store” concept in the 2000s, so you’re not alone.

  • splendoruranium@infosec.pubEnglish
    0·
    8 days ago

    Global anti-trust efforts are simply not very strong and never have been. They make for boring political platforms and are constantly under attack by corporate actors.

    Ideally no business should ever be allowed to grow to the point of being able to exert political influence at all let alone rival the power of small nations, but here we are.

    Any rational enterprise will employ all and any anti-competitive practices that it can come up with - if it can get away with them. And the more influence the business exerts, the more it can get away with.

    • sbird@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      8 days ago

      I find it really weird that some of this is even possible. How do they only let you make MacOS/iOS apps in XCode???

      • heavydust@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        8 days ago

        That’s false (or a lie because you seem to know a lot about tools). macOS is a Unix system with a lot of compilers. You can also write iOS applications with React or Kotlin.

        Last but not least, they are not a monopoly, they make money with expensive phones. You’re free to buy another brand.

        Edit: downvoted for stating simple facts, feels like good old reddit.

        • idunnololz@lemmy.world
          0·
          7 days ago

          As an app dev im pretty sure you cannot actually compile an iOS app on let’s say windows. Although you are free to use things like flutter or KMP and yes your code can be built for iOS on any OS you want, the compiler (the thing that turns code into binary to run on the platform) only exists on MacOS.

          So at the end of the day you will need a Mac to be able to actually run your code on an iphone.

        • bdonvr@thelemmy.club
          0·
          8 days ago

          You can compile iOS apps other ways… But IIRC to publish them on the app store you’re supposed to use XCode

  • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.websiteEnglish
    0·
    8 days ago

    If Apple were the only player on the block, at least in Europe they would be under a lot more pressure. But they’re not. There are other OSs (although only one really matters), there are other phone makers.

    Antitrust is more reactive. There is a market, a dominant player, said player plays unfairly, the authorities react. That reaction takes years to go through all the levels of courts available. By the time we get a final ruling, the market has long moved on. The corporations know that too. As long as the lawyers are cheaper than the money they stand to lose they will carry on.

    And in Apple’s defense: the mobile operating system market is not that old. And it’s not clearly defined. And as long as there is wiggle room they can do whatever they want. Part of the problem is that the legislation dealing with antitrust on either side of the Atlantic is like copyright law: no longer fit for purpose.

  • DavidGA@lemmy.world
    0·
    8 days ago

    Apple is not a monopoly, nor the dominant manufacturer of smartphones. They have the freedom to do these things because you don’t have to buy an iPhone.

      • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
        0·
        8 days ago

        Just because people like being abused doesn’t mean it’s not abuse.

        Developers get shafted pretty hard by Apple, if nobody else.

      • heavydust@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        8 days ago

        I don’t use iOS anymore but users don’t complain about the walled garden, or they would buy an Android. They want their phone to work reliably like a washing machine with a few buttons, and it’s an acceptable personal choice.

        Edit: now you’re downvoting the fact that people have different preferences than you. Pathetic.

    • sbird@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      0·
      8 days ago

      I’m just interested to know how they’re able to make it so that you HAVE to use XCode (which is only available on MacOS)

      • 4am@lemm.ee
        0·
        7 days ago

        Why wouldn’t they be able to? Acceptance to their App Store requires that apps be built with a trusted tool chain. Their reasoning is that it’s harder to built malicious apps that might make it past review if you’re using their tools.

        Also: Money

      • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.ggEnglish
        0·
        8 days ago

        You don’t really; a cross compilation with a compiler that can generate the ARM instructions for Apple’s ARM CPUs should largely just work.

        However, it’s impossible to test the produced app without using an iPhone or MacOS’s tools to simulate running on an iPhone. You also are just going to have way less of an uphill battle using Apple’s tools and you’re likely to get better optimized binaries.

        You also don’t have to build iOS apps with Swift; C++ and things like Qt can be used.

        • paperplane@lemmy.world
          0·
          7 days ago

          Also the iOS SDK isn’t freely available, so you’d have to copy that out of an Xcode installation… but given enough time and effort, you could almost certainly hack together a cross-compilation config for Clang that compiles an unsigned iOS app on Linux. Signing it might in fact be the bigger issue, since I’m not aware of any tools that sign Mach-O binaries on Linux.

          • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.ggEnglish
            0·
            7 days ago

            Something to implement signing given the key to sign with could almost certainly be created.

            I think the biggest reason this stuff hasn’t really happened is … there’s not much motivation and Apple will likely respond to such efforts unkindly so you might need to be a bit of a curious masochist (or at least in strange circumstances) to attempt such an effort 😅

  • GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml
    0·
    7 days ago

    While I broadly agree with your sentiment,

    Why can’t you compile Swift outside of MacOS

    You can compile Swift on Windows and Linux. There are other tools required to build macOS and iOS-apps bundled with XCode that prevents building those on other platforms, but Swift itself is available standalone.

  • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.clubEnglish
    0·
    8 days ago

    Apple isn’t a monopoly.

    In personal computing and smartphones, Apple has competition. Because Apple has competition, even if it is only one other major company, Apple won’t be forced to unbundle services.

      • Ephera@lemmy.mlEnglish
        0·
        7 days ago

        Yeah, but the law genuinely treats (near-)monopolies differently from their competitors. What’s legal for a small company does not have to be for a company which dominates the market.

        The thing is, laws are supposed to bring the greatest benefit to a society. In most cases, fairness aids that goal. But that’s not the case for competition laws, which is why they’re relatively unintuitive.

    • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      7 days ago

      Monopolies are not the only thing that governments are supposed to prevent. Anti competitive practices are supposed to be illegal regardless of monopoly status. The same is true of cartel behavior.