There's a fine line between pride and arrogance that often gets blurred. Every company is proud of the products that it makes as it should be, but when that pride exercises itself in a way that it begins to make users' decisions for them, that's when it starts feeling like arrogance. Apple and its walled garden approach is the perfect example of that.
It's one thing for Apple to want its customers to only use Apple's services and apps, it's other to not let them use a competitor's service, or allow it in a way that it almost becomes a mark of shame for the non-Apple user. The company's iMessage texting app is the perfect example of this.
Messages from other iPhone users show up as green bubbles in iMessage while messages from Android users show up as blue chat bubbles. So when you're texting with an iPhone user from your Android phone, they instantly know that you're not using an iPhone. This has become a social stigma in itself, with iPhone users ridiculing their Android counterparts over the blue chat bubbles.
Sure, you could use a third-party app like WhatsApp or Telegram, but since the vast majority of iPhone users rely on iMessage, it's disdain of Android by design. even though Apple has itself confirmed that there is no technical barrier in porting iMessage to Android.
It's an even more restrictive approach with Apple Pay. iPhone users can't use any other NFC-based tap-to-pay mobile payments solution other than Apple's own. The company simply doesn't open up this technology to other payment service providers. If you want to use an NFC-based payment service on the iPhone, you either use Apple Pay or nothing at all. It's the manifestation of arrogance, that users wouldn't want a second option just because there's an Apple service.
We've seen shades of this arrogance in Apple's hardware as well. Even as the entire mobile industry made the switch to USB-C charging ports from their proprietary connectors, Apple stuck with its Lightning connector, simply because it could make more money selling charging cables that couldn't be used with any other device. So while you can use the USB-C charger that came with a non-Samsung device to charge your Galaxy Z Flip 5, the Lightning cable was useless on anything else other than an Apple device.
This had gone on for far too long and while Apple would have you believe that its users were happy not being given choices, the pushback was inevitable, so much so that the European Commission got involved. It adopted rules that mandated all phones sold in the EU after fall 2024 to have a USB-C port. Apple had to comply or it couldn't sell iPhones anymore in all of Europe. This wasn't a small market that the company could ignore. It ultimately swallowed the bitter pill and slapped a USB-C port on the iPhone 15. What that means is now your Samsung charger can also charge iPhones. Arrogance broken.
By the looks of it, Apple may have to swallow another bitter pill. The European Commission has been saying for a few years now that Apple shouldn't lock the NFC chip in its iPhones so that it can only be used for Apple Pay. As you'd expect, the company has tried very hard to fight an outcome where it may be required to let other payment service providers use the NFC chip on its smartphones. That's precisely where things seem to be heading now.
Apple was flirting dangerously with EU antitrust charges and might have been fined heavily. It appears that the company has seen the writing on the wall and has decided to surrender so that it doesn't have a legal battle with the EU. Apple has reportedly agreed to let other payment services access the iPhone's NFC chip, meaning that Apple Pay will no longer be the only tap-and-pay solution on its devices.
This is a major victory for consumers as not only will it lead to the development of better services for the iPhone but it provides them with the freedom to choose what they want to use. If Apple has so much trust that its services are the better, why doesn't it let people choose freely, because ultimately quality flies in the face of protectionism. So before Apple tries to spin this decision as a favor it's done for users, remember, it has only made this decision to avoid a long legal battle and a potentially big fine.
This isn't the only challenge that Apple faces over limiting contactless payments to Apple Pay. There are also legal challenges on the home front, with Iowa's Affinity Credit Union suing Apple in the United States for anti-competitive behavior by restricting iOS users to Apple Pay. This settlement in the EU might force Apple to make similar concessions elsewhere, particularly in its home market, which has definitely got to a hurt a bit more.
There may even be more hurt on the horizon for Apple. The EU Commission is still toying with the idea of designating iMessage as being a dominant messaging app, forcing it to play nice with other platforms. Much has also been said about the way Apple runs the App Store and how it's possibly monopolistic in nature.
While the company won the lawsuit filed by Epic Games, the verdict did require concessions over in-app payment mandates. Epic has moved the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the important claims in the Apple case and now that it has won against Google and its similar antitrust behavior for the Play Store, this puts momentum behind Epic's claims as the game developer will undoubtedly proceed against Apple with newfound ferociousness.
It's hard to imagine that Samsung doesn't just sit back and enjoy Apple becoming a victim of its own arrogance, basking in that schadenfreude (pleasure in another's misfortune), with Apple being slapped down on the very things that were quoted as examples that Samsung should follow.
Samsung's independent approach to how it does things is a valuable lesson in not following the herd mentality. Apple's reality distortion field is amazing at making it seem like the way it does things is the only right way to do things. Its repeated surrender has shattered that illusion.
