EU chief wants Apple to open up its guarded ecosystem of hardware, software to rivals

Good luck with that! European Union industry chief Thierry Breton has called on Apple  CEO Tim Cook to open up the company’s guarded ecosystem of hardware and software to rivals, reports Reuters.

Breton’s comments came after meeting Cook in Brussels. “The next job for Apple and other Big Tech, under the DMA (Digital Markets Act) is to open up its gates to competitors,” Breton told Reuters. “Be it the electronic wallet, browsers or app stores, consumers using an Apple iPhone should be able to benefit from competitive services by a range of providers.”

The Digital Markets Act, will, among other things, require firms such as Apple to offer alternatives to its App Store and payment systems.

Not surprisingly, Apple strongly opposes the DMA. The tech giant told ABC News that “it was concerned that parts of the Digital Markets Act “will create unnecessary privacy and security vulnerabilities for our users while others will prohibit us from charging for intellectual property in which we invest a great deal.”