In November, Apple surprised us all by announcing that RCS support would be coming to iPhones later this year. If you’re like me, you’ve probably spent way too much time thinking about what’s next. why Apple has changed tack.
Write destination bold fireballJohn Gruber explains: China.
“Unfortunately, we can’t say for sure, but after spending the last few months regularly pecking around trees that house small birds, this is good news for fans of mandatory government regulation.” says Gruber. “Apple’s hand was effectively forced, but by China, not the EU.”
Gruber noted that new laws are being enacted in China that will require 5G devices to support RCS in order to be certified in China.
Chinese carriers have supported RCS for years, and last year the Chinese government began the process of codifying into law that new 5G devices must support RCS in order to receive certification. (Here’s a good English translation on Reddit of the part related to Apple.) Surprisingly, the Chinese government doesn’t seem concerned about the lack of encryption provisions in the RCS standard. All the birds I talked to said the same thing. RCS’s iOS support is all about China.
Apple simply wants to continue ignoring RCS because it doesn’t want to support new non-E2EE protocols or new carrier-controlled protocols (encrypted or not). But when the Chinese Communist Party insists that device makers need to jump in to sell their products in China, Apple asks, “For how much?”
One of the reports in the months since Apple announced RCS in November was that the move was driven by the European Union’s Digital Markets Act. However, the DMA did not specifically mention his RCS. And now it has been officially confirmed that iMessage is not large enough to fall within the scope of DMA in the EU.
I am going to use it as an example bold fireball Gruber’s full article on Apple, RCS, China, and the European Union. They say there’s no better way to spend a Friday night.our friends are here 9to5Google We also put our own spin on the news.
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