Apple is considering allowing third-party software to be the default application in iOS

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is currently working with U.S. state attorneys to launch major antitrust investigations against tech giants including Apple, Google, and Microsoft. US regulators want to assess whether these acquisitions will cause market monopolies and so on.

At the same time, some software developers have filed a complaint with the US Congress’s Antitrust Committee. These developers believe that Apple uses the platform to suppress small and medium companies.

Recently, Bloomberg reported that Apple is considering relaxing restrictions on third-party developers and allowing certain software to be the default application for the system.

On the iOS platform, functions such as browser and email must use Apple’s built-in software. Third-party software does not have permission to set itself as the system default application.

For example, the browser can only call Safari by default, and clicking the email hyperlink also wakes up Apple’s mailbox. Third-party software needs to be manually enabled.

“iPhone 11 / iPhone 11 Max / iPhone 11R / iOS 13 Concept” by Ran Avni is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

According to statistics, Apple has more than 38 default applications pre-installed on the iOS system. Some of these applications, such as browsers and mailbox users, cannot be actively deleted and uninstalled.

The reason given by Apple is that these pre-installed applications provide users with a more complete experience, so neither delete nor allow other applications to become default applications. This restriction has been going on for many years.

If Apple does open up the default application restrictions, then Google and Microsoft may become the biggest winners, and there are countless well-known mobile programs developed by Google and Microsoft.

With comprehensive services and a large user base, Google and Microsoft may turn many applications into default applications, which in turn will attract more consumers. Of course, streaming music platforms such as Spotify can also benefit from it.

For Apple, if the restrictions are really open for users to choose, the benefits will definitely be damaged, but in the context of antitrust, this is no way out.

Via: Bloomberg