The Californian firm drags its feet but complies with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) by opening the door to interoperability between its devices and competing accessories.
Apple has a reputation as a brand that markets products within a very closed ecosystem. That’s what his customers like too, mind you. When you’re working on your Mac and listening to music, the sound from your AirPods automatically switches to your iPhone when there’s an incoming call. Similarly, if you’re listening to a podcast on your iPhone and you’re sent a YouTube video on iPad, the audio source is switched when you start playing it. So many little technical trivialities which make the Apple experience what it is… But which do not please Europe at all, which considers this technical confinement anti-competitive. So, to comply with the Digital Market ActApple shows white paw.
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Apple will open up to competing headphones and headsets
This automatic audio switch functionality will soon be extended to competing brands. In any case, this is what we understand when reading a new working document made available to developers by Apple.
Called Audio Accessory Kit, this new toolbox will allow competing audio accessory manufacturers to offer the same kind of features on iPhone as Apple with its AirPods. Clearly, whether you are equipped with affordable JBL wireless headphones or the latest ultra high-end headphones from Sony, their designers will be free to add a feature allowing automatic switching of the audio source on Apple devices.
Obviously, everything still remains to be done and it will be up to the developers of the different brands to take advantage of this new “framework” to integrate it (or not) into their products. Apple is only offering them a duplicate key – there is no formal guarantee that it will be used.
Apple’s barriers are falling little by little
Still, this is pleasing news for defenders of total interoperability between smartphones and accessories of all brands. If Apple has always defended the rigidity of its ecosystem, it has no other choice but to play the game of the European Commission, at the risk of exposing itself to a very heavy fine.
So far, the Digital Markets Act has already produced notable effects on Apple’s philosophy. Thanks to Europe, iPhones are much more customizable today than ten years ago. In particular, you can easily change your web browser, email client, default navigation application, but also install third-party application stores in order to escape the total hegemony of the App Store. It is also at DMA that we owe support for the RCS standard on iPhones.
In addition to the subject of headphones and headsets, the coming months should also be marked by extended support for connected watches from competing brands on iOS. It will in fact become possible, for certain references from certain brands, to receive these notifications on your wrist without needing to purchase an Apple Watch. A situation which probably makes Apple cringe, but which is, it must be recognized, to the advantage of consumers.
