Apple’s latest iPhone software, iOS 17.4 is just out and comes with plenty of feature updates. But in a development to be filed under unintended consequences, a surprise detail emerged for EU users wanting to use their iPhones overseas—full details here—and Apple has just confirmed what it all means.
March 9 update below. This post was first published on March 7, 2024.
The world’s iPhone software is now split into two parts, for users in the European Union, and for everyone else. Because of the newly implemented Digital Markets Act, Apple was forced to open up its iPhone software in certain ways, including allowing EU iPhone owners to access alternative marketplaces for apps.
It means that apps not available through the Apple App Store, for instance, could be downloaded through these marketplaces. How it pans out will become clearer over time, but there are already companies setting up to provide these apps to users with an EU Apple ID. Apple describes it like this 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 physically be 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 had said that apps from those other marketplaces would continue to work overseas, but was light on details, saying only “If you leave the European Union for short-term travel, you’ll continue to have access to alternative app marketplaces for a grace period. If you’re gone for too long, you’ll lose access to some features.”
There was no indication of how long the grace period might be. Happily, Apple has updated the document with clearer language and clarifies that the grace period (though 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 that you previously installed from alternative app marketplaces. Alternative app marketplaces can continue updating those apps for up to 30 days after you leave the European Union, and you can continue using alternative app marketplaces to manage previously installed apps. However, you must be in the European Union to install alternative app marketplaces and new apps from alternative app marketplaces.”
So, apps already downloaded from these marketplaces 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, though some European nations are known for their big summer vacations lasting the whole of August, for instance.
While it only applies in the EU now, other governments will be eagle-eyed to see if they should insist on similar legislation for their citizens. This is a developing story, so please check back.
March 9 update. The DMA is just days old but there are already commentaries on how well it’s likely to do and how it will affect, the gatekeepers—the name the DMA gives to those big tech companies providing core services and wielding significant power. These companies include Apple, Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Bytedance.
As reported in The Verge, Max von Thun, the director of Europe and transatlantic partnerships at Open Markets Institute, has commented on what has happened so far. Announcements from companies like Amazon, Meta and Google, when they revealed changes in response to the act, “point towards superficial compliance designed to tick regulatory boxes without posing any real threat to the gatekeepers’ market dominance,” according to von Thun.
A spat between Epic and Apple, where Epic’s developer account was suddenly shut down, now seems to have been resolved as quickly as it began.
But this story will run and run. As The Verge says, “All of the gatekeepers being targeted by the DMA still need to get their proposals approved by the European Commission. In January, an EU commissioner told Reuters that the bloc would take ‘strong action’ if it feels the solutions being proposed aren’t good enough.”
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