The European Union investigation has concluded and the result is that even the iPad, or rather its iPadOS operating system, must comply with the Digital Market Act. The Commission’s investigation found that the iPad operating system has all the characteristics to be defined as gatekeeper: the number of “business” users would exceed the envisaged quantitative threshold by eleven times while the number of consumer users would be so close to the threshold that he would surely overtake her soon. Furthermore, according to the European Union “Apple uses its vast ecosystem to discourage end users from switching to other tablet operating systems” and business users who are stuck on iPadOS would also be tied to iOS.”due to its large and attractive user base and its importance for certain use cases, such as gaming apps”.
Apple now has six months to ensure full compliance with the DMA. The company released the following statement: “We will continue to engage constructively with the European Commission to comply with the DMA, across all designated services. Our goal will always be to offer the best products and services to our European customers, while mitigating the new privacy and data security risks that DMA presents to our users.”
All the obligations that have already affected iOS in six months will also have to affect iPadOS, and although many may think that this represents a problem for Apple and its balance sheets we believe that this move can only bring advantages to Apple by further increasing its turnover.
The European Union explains that “Apple leverages its vast ecosystem to discourage end users from switching to other tablet operating systems” without having understood that in reality the high price-performance ratio of a basic iPad compared to other tablets, but above all the quality of the apps and the ecosystem, they are what made the iPad today the only tablet to be considered for a business audience.
Today there are thousands of business apps for iPad, and they exist because companies are certain that these apps work well on every iPad model but above all that they will continue to find compatible spare parts and tablets for years. Likewise, there are very few professional or business apps for Android because there are so many tablets with different specifications and different screen formats that investing in Android is an unnecessary risk, also because the savings are practically zero.
The ability to load third-party apps represents a real blessing for the public of iPad users, and this applies to both consumer and business users: when you will be able to install UTM with HyperVisor on the iPad Pro M1/M2 by virtualizing both Windows and Linux How many companies that currently use a Windows tablet for the need to run some legacy corporate application compatible only with x86 processors will switch to iPad? How many notebooks will be replaced by an iPad?
Not to mention the games: Fortnite, when it existed for the iPad, ran decidedly better on the Apple tablet than on a PS4/Xbox One Metal: an iPad with gamepad is the most powerful portable console you can buy today, and once the game works on the iPad it also works on macOS, or on Apple TV.
All this with the famous Core Technology Fee, which currently exists even if it is under the magnifying glass of Europe: the developer of AltStore did not have too many problems managing the CFT and managed to sell a good number of subscriptions only thanks to the presence of its Delta emulator. LCTF was paid by the users, and it will be the same thing for dozens of other applications that until now did not exist in the Apple world (see UTM) and which will arrive in a “premium” version because no one gives anything away anymore. Today for many apps Apple earned nothing, tomorrow thanks to the CTF it will earn much more, in addition to selling a greater number of devices: today many people did not buy iPhones or iPads due to some restrictions that today, in Europe, no longer exist.
