Apple’s latest iPhone software, iOS 17.4 has just been released and it comes with many feature updates. But in a development that’s bound to have unintended consequences, a surprising detail has emerged for EU users who want to use their iPhones abroad—full details here—and Apple has just confirmed what it all means.
New iPhone software could affect EU users’ long-term travel plans.
March 10 update below. This post was first published on March 7, 2024.
Worldwide iPhone software is now split into two parts, for users in the European Union and for everyone else. Due to the recently implemented Digital Markets Act, Apple has been forced to open up its iPhone software in certain ways, including allowing EU iPhone owners to access alternative marketplaces for apps.
This means that apps that are not available through the Apple App Store, for example, can be downloaded through these marketplaces. How this will play out will become clearer over time, but there are already companies preparing to provide these apps to users with an EU Apple ID. Apple describes it this way in a support document: “The country or region of your Apple ID must be set to one of the countries or regions of the European Union and you must be physically located in the European Union.”
That’s clear, but we live in a connected world, so what happens to those EU users when they travel? Apple said apps from those other markets would continue to work overseas, but didn’t go into detail, saying only: “If you leave the European Union for a short-term trip, you’ll still have access to alternative app markets with a grace period. If you’re gone too long, you will lose access to some features.”
There was no indication of how long the wait might last. Thankfully, Apple has updated the document with clearer language and clarifies that the grace period (although it’s no longer called that) will be 30 days.
It now says: “If you leave the European Union, you can continue to open and use apps you previously installed from alternative app markets. Alternative application markets may continue to update these applications for up to 30 days after you leave the European Union, and you may continue to use alternative application markets to manage pre-installed applications. However, you must be in the European Union to install alternative app markets and new apps from alternative app markets.”
So apps already downloaded from these markets will continue to work wherever you are, but after 30 days outside the EU they won’t get updates.
Thirty days might be enough for most people, although some European nations are known for long summer holidays that last, for example, the whole of August.
Although it now only applies in the EU, other governments will be wary to see if they should insist on similar legislation for their own citizens. This is a developing story, so check back.
Update as of March 9. DMA is only a few days old, but there are already comments about how well it will work and how it will affect gatekeepers—the name DMA gives to those large technology companies that provide essential services and wield significant power. These companies include Apple, Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Bytedance.
As published in The Verge, commented on what has happened so far Max von Thun, Director for Europe and Transatlantic Partnership at the Institute for Open Markets. Announcements by companies such as Amazon, Meta and Google, when they revealed changes in response to the law, “indicate superficial compliance designed to check regulatory boxes without posing any real threat to the gatekeepers’ market dominance,” according to von Thun.
The spat between Epic and Apple, where Epic’s developer account was suddenly closed, seems to be resolved now just as fast as it started.
But this story will go on and on. As The Verge says: “All gatekeepers targeted by the DMA still need to get their proposals approved by the European Commission. The EU commissioner said in January Reuters that the bloc will take ‘strong action’ if it considers that the proposed solutions are not good enough.”
Update as of March 10. In a further comment, Jan Penfrat, senior policy advisor at European Digital Rights, told TheVerge that none of the changes proposed by the affected companies “has led to any significant change in the power structures that help keep these companies on top.” However, he notes that some actions will take time to produce results. Penfrat also argues that Apple is the gatekeeper that DMA could hit the hardest because there are already competitors ready to challenge Apple’s dominance, such as Epic Games and Spotify.
And now Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has weighed in on the Apple-Epic Games story. As you can read here, Apple performs a complicated choreography, authorizing and then terminating Epic’s Swedish developer account, thus preventing Fortnite from reaching the foreign market. Now that account has been reactivated.
According to Gourmet in his latest Power On newsletterApple created a “headache”, saying that “Apple has argued that it has the right to withdraw a developer’s account at any time, but it seems clear that the company took this step because it was offended by the criticism of Epic CEO Tim Sweeney. The new EU policies called the iPhone maker “hot garbage” and “malicious compliance”. Of course, after Apple banned the account, EU regulators soon began to question the move. It seemed likely that another strike against Apple was on the table in the EU.”
Apple has now reversed course, in response to assurances from Epic that the developer will abide by the rules of the new external markets. As Gurman says, “Epic is free to operate its new developer account and distribute its apps as it pleases — as long as it promises to no longer violate Apple’s rules. But the damage may already be done. Apple has shown that it is willing to retaliate against a developer, and this will only put it under even more scrutiny from regulators.”
In some ways, it seemed that passing the DMA could have been the end of the story and everyone would have moved on. Now, it seems, the story is just beginning.