Oh no, how will we survive? Everybody knows that these threats are hollow (Apple's stock price would take a gigantic hit) but even if they followed through I'm pretty sure we would hardly notice. If both Apple and Google stopped trading here then that might actually be good and create enough oxygen for local competition to flourish.
Nobody believes what Americans say, be that Trump, Elon or Apple. They're all full of shit, and they rarely do what they say. The average junkie is a more reliable source on what Apple will do than Apple itself.
Do it. It would be the beginning of the end which needs to come. The only market they would have monopoly left would be USA, due to the lock-in of iMessage and encouragement of kids to bully others who can't afford expensive iPhones.
Public companies will happily can the entire management team if they cause as little as a 5% dip in stock price. Apples EU revenue is larger than China and Japan combined. Voluntarily forfeiting that is like the modern management equivalent of ritual self-sacrifice: afterwards, they would have so much unsold stock on their hands that it’s going to tank prices worldwide.
Sounds like Apple are out of touch with how this game works. Apple, the EU took away your lightning port. They are not afraid to take the entire device away. Playing chicken with your best selling devices cannot end well for you.
My love will turn to hate of they do this. That’s the danger with building something people love, it can flip to hatred. They should wield that responsibility carefully.
The EU should go even farther. Force hardware vendors to decouple from services.
Eg. AirPods work better with iPhones than Bluetooth. Why? Because of software integration. Apple Photos works better than third party photo management apps because of the OS to application integration.
The EU should require hardware makers to define compatibility tests and anyone that passes the compatibility test can become a drop in replacement for the vendor’s own apps.
This would increase consumer choice, competition, and reduce ecosystem lock-in. All of which will make things better for consumers.
The headline currently reads: "Apple threatens to stop selling iPhones in the EU".
The blog post cites an article from The Guardian, with the headline "Apple calls for changes to anti-monopoly laws and says it may stop shipping to the EU". In that article, nothing is mentioned about ceasing iPhone sales. It does say: "warning that unless it is amended the company could stop shipping some products and services to the 27-country bloc" and elsewhere: "It did not specify which products could in future be prevented from being distributed in the EU, but said that the Apple Watch, first released a decade ago, might not be released today in the EU"
The actual press release from Apple seems to be https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/the-digital-markets-a... and if there's anything in there that supports the headline of this HN submission, it's too subtle for me to find. I think this submission is unreasonably sensationalized, with the predictable effect that the comments here are mostly knee-jerk reactions to the (false) headline instead of discussion of the validity or lack thereof of any specific complaints from Apple.
What's news to me is apparently the European Commission is required to conduct a review of the DMA every three years, including collecting feedback from the public (both users and businesses). So Apple's complaints aren't coming out of the blue; they're part of that feedback process.
I don’t think it’s a bluff. This is more than just a revenue calculation, this is about giving up control of how your hardware and software can be built. If the EU can dictate what features should be included in a software release, that has massive engineering implications for an ecosystem as vast as Apple’s. Simple features like Live Translation or iPhone Mirroring become 10x more complex to build when you need to test and support other vendor devices. In fact some features become downright impossible if you require interoperability. I’m with Apple on this one. If a country could dictate to me that I need to make my engineering 10x more complex to support their whims and can’t build certain features, then I would seriously consider quitting that country regardless of revenue. This is about slowing down the pace of development and adding engineering complexity to everything worldwide, not just revenue.
If we want to see what the actual impact on Apple’s market share would be if they pulled out of the EU market, consider Russia as a case study. Since Apple pulled out of Russia in 2022, the market share of iOS devices has remained steady and even slightly increased. Russia is comparatively poor, Apple would lose nothing if they pulled out of the EU because consumers would simply travel to other countries to buy.
Here’s a comparison of iOS share in Russia (mobile OS) between August 2025 vs August 2021, using StatCounter data:
• August 2025: iOS ~ 31.97 %
• August 2021: In 2021, the iOS share in Russia was about 27.52 % (for mobile OS) per StatCounter’s data.
Imagine if the US was to regulate so-called "tech" companies and the surveillance "business model"
Would Apple threaten to stop selling computers with their pre-installed, crippled OS
If they did, what would be left
IMHO
FreeBSD (from which Apple took its UNIX userland) would be left
NetBSD would be left
OpenBSD would be left
Linux would be left (maybe)
To name a few
If these so-called "tech" companies like Apple gave up on surveillance because surveillance was regulated, then we would still have open source volunteer-operated OS projects
I suppose some HN commenter might try to argue
that these OS projects would disappear without certain "tech companies" that do surveillance as a "business" and
that contributions from these so-called "tech" companies are keeping these OS projects going
Apple's "threat" is not credible these Silicon Valley companies have lied too many times. No one is going to believe them
These companies are hell bent on using the internet to conduct surveillance, they cannot stop
AFAIK, those open source OS projects do not try to phone home. Even if they did, the public can remove the surveillance code and re-compile
There is no "app store", no corporate restrictions on what software the computer owner can run
IMHO the compiler toolchains are nicer than "Xcode"; and there's no "Apple Tax"
23 comments
[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 44.9 ms ] thread“Stop. Don’t. Come back.”
Hahahahahahaha.
Iphones will he gone, there will be an influx of meizu or whatever chinese alternatives are.
They'll simply loose some market share.
Are Macs next in the line?
Nobody believes what Americans say, be that Trump, Elon or Apple. They're all full of shit, and they rarely do what they say. The average junkie is a more reliable source on what Apple will do than Apple itself.
Public companies will happily can the entire management team if they cause as little as a 5% dip in stock price. Apples EU revenue is larger than China and Japan combined. Voluntarily forfeiting that is like the modern management equivalent of ritual self-sacrifice: afterwards, they would have so much unsold stock on their hands that it’s going to tank prices worldwide.
It will actually help the EU companies to fill in the gap.
Signed from my iPhone, with an iPad on the table next to me, and a Mac Studio and Apple TV at home.
My love will turn to hate of they do this. That’s the danger with building something people love, it can flip to hatred. They should wield that responsibility carefully.
Sent from an iPhone 15 Pro.
Eg. AirPods work better with iPhones than Bluetooth. Why? Because of software integration. Apple Photos works better than third party photo management apps because of the OS to application integration.
The EU should require hardware makers to define compatibility tests and anyone that passes the compatibility test can become a drop in replacement for the vendor’s own apps.
This would increase consumer choice, competition, and reduce ecosystem lock-in. All of which will make things better for consumers.
The blog post cites an article from The Guardian, with the headline "Apple calls for changes to anti-monopoly laws and says it may stop shipping to the EU". In that article, nothing is mentioned about ceasing iPhone sales. It does say: "warning that unless it is amended the company could stop shipping some products and services to the 27-country bloc" and elsewhere: "It did not specify which products could in future be prevented from being distributed in the EU, but said that the Apple Watch, first released a decade ago, might not be released today in the EU"
The actual press release from Apple seems to be https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2025/09/the-digital-markets-a... and if there's anything in there that supports the headline of this HN submission, it's too subtle for me to find. I think this submission is unreasonably sensationalized, with the predictable effect that the comments here are mostly knee-jerk reactions to the (false) headline instead of discussion of the validity or lack thereof of any specific complaints from Apple.
What's news to me is apparently the European Commission is required to conduct a review of the DMA every three years, including collecting feedback from the public (both users and businesses). So Apple's complaints aren't coming out of the blue; they're part of that feedback process.
I bet the investors and the stock price would LOVE that
Here’s a comparison of iOS share in Russia (mobile OS) between August 2025 vs August 2021, using StatCounter data:
• August 2025: iOS ~ 31.97 %
• August 2021: In 2021, the iOS share in Russia was about 27.52 % (for mobile OS) per StatCounter’s data.
Good."
Imagine if the US was to regulate so-called "tech" companies and the surveillance "business model"
Would Apple threaten to stop selling computers with their pre-installed, crippled OS
If they did, what would be left
IMHO
FreeBSD (from which Apple took its UNIX userland) would be left
NetBSD would be left
OpenBSD would be left
Linux would be left (maybe)
To name a few
If these so-called "tech" companies like Apple gave up on surveillance because surveillance was regulated, then we would still have open source volunteer-operated OS projects
I suppose some HN commenter might try to argue
that these OS projects would disappear without certain "tech companies" that do surveillance as a "business" and
that contributions from these so-called "tech" companies are keeping these OS projects going
Apple's "threat" is not credible these Silicon Valley companies have lied too many times. No one is going to believe them
These companies are hell bent on using the internet to conduct surveillance, they cannot stop
AFAIK, those open source OS projects do not try to phone home. Even if they did, the public can remove the surveillance code and re-compile
There is no "app store", no corporate restrictions on what software the computer owner can run
IMHO the compiler toolchains are nicer than "Xcode"; and there's no "Apple Tax"
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39680538