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Privacy Policy | GDPR Notice / The EU’s new competition rules are going live
« Last post by javajolt on March 13, 2024, 05:39:44 AM »
Here’s how tech giants are responding

The Digital Markets Act’s deadline for compliance is imminent. Its six designated ‘gatekeepers’ have fought the rules, but also bent to them.



March 6th marks a long-awaited moment of change: it’s the deadline for tech’s biggest “gatekeepers” to comply with the European Union’s Digital Markets Act, or DMA. The DMA requires powerful companies to allow more interoperability and avoid preferencing their own digital services. It’s generated disputes over which services should be included, sparked excitement among smaller competitors, and resulted in changes to how companies handle fundamental parts of their business. And in March 2024, after years of debate, the rules are coming into force.

The EU has designated six companies as gatekeepers, which it defines as large digital platforms providing “core” services like app stores, search engines, and web browsers. The DMA’s restrictions apply to specific services within these companies: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft. Here’s what each has been doing to meet — and fight — those demands.

What does the DMA require?

By March 6th, the six designated gatekeepers are required to comply with the DMA rules for the 22 covered services identified by the European Commission. By March 7th, those companies must submit compliance reports to the EU, explaining how they intend to stay in line with the rules. European officials will later evaluate those plans in workshops with each of the covered companies.

In general, designated platforms must take proactive steps that the EU believes will make digital markets more fair and open. For example, gatekeepers must let third-party companies interoperate with their services, they can’t favor their own products in rankings over competitors’, and they can’t condition app store access for outside developers on using their payments systems or other services.

What is a gatekeeper?

The European Commission presumes a platform is a gatekeeper if it meets two conditions.  First, it must have an annual EU revenue of at least €7.5 billion in each of the last three fiscal years or an average market cap of €75 billion in the last fiscal year, while providing its core platform to at least three EU member states. Second, it must operate a core platform with at least 45 million monthly active users in the EU and more than 10,000 yearly active EU business users in each of the last three fiscal years.

The commission identified specific services for each of the designated gatekeepers that it believes are subject to DMA rules. Gatekeepers that fail to comply with the rules can face fines of up to 10 percent of global revenue, and up to 20 percent for repeat infractions.

How is each gatekeeper responding?

Alphabet

Alphabet has a sprawling empire, stretching from a dominant search engine to a major web browser and popular mobile operating system, with many services interlinked to augment their power. That’s given it the widest range of covered services under the DMA:

   • Google Play

   • Google Maps

   • Google Shopping

   •Google Search

   • YouTube

   • The Android operating system

   • Alphabet’s online advertising system

   • Google Chrome

Consequently, the company announced a variety of changes in January and March, affecting everything from data sharing to search results for EU users. The highlights include:

   • Choice screens — one for picking a default browser on Android devices and one for picking a
      default search engine in the cross-platform Chrome browser — coming to the European
      Economic Area (EEA) after March 6th.

   • More links to competing sites when searching Google for things like flights and hotels,
      including a dedicated space for comparison sites. Google will also remove some of its own
      widgets, like the Google Flights box.

   • An opt-out for sharing some data across YouTube, Search, ad services, Google Play, Chrome,
      Google Shopping, and Google Maps. Users’ choices will take effect on March 6th.

   • A new Data Portability API for developers to build on its Google Takeout service, which lets
      users move data out of Google services.

   • The option for Play Store app developers to direct users in the EEA outside their apps to
      promote alternate payment offers, part of a larger overhaul of Android payments in Europe.

The company is a long-standing target of EU antitrust attacks, and some of these changes echo earlier concessions. Chrome on Android already offered search engine choice screens, for instance, after a previous legal spat.

Alphabet’s proposed changes have displeased certain competitors, particularly smaller, specialized search platforms. Online reviews platform Yelp recently claimed the search changes not only “violate the DMA’s prohibition against self-preferencing, they actually increase the rate at which users will remain within Google’s walled garden.” Megan Gray, former counsel for rival search engine DuckDuckGo, has questioned the entire concept of choice screens as an effective vehicle for promoting competition. And Epic CEO Tim Sweeney, whose company is suing Google for antitrust violations in the US, has objected strenuously to its Android payment framework. So we probably haven’t seen the end of questions over Alphabet’s dominance — but it’s staked out its starting ground.

Apple

Apple is one of the highest-profile DMA targets, thanks to its expansive mobile walled garden. The iOS operating system, Safari web browser, and App Store are all designated as “core platform services,” and much of the conversation has centered on how far it will have to open them up.

On January 25th, the company announced that it would be introducing several changes in the iOS 17.4 update to abide by the EU’s new rules, which include:

   • Allowing iOS apps to be distributed via third-party marketplaces, eroding the Apple App
      Store’s monopoly over iPhone apps.

   • A new framework and APIs allowing third-party marketplace developers to manage app
      installations and updates.

   • Support for third-party browser engines that aren’t built around WebKit, the engine that
      underpins Apple’s own Safari browser, and a new prompt screen encouraging iOS users to
      choose a default browser.

   • Opening up the iPhone’s NFC systems to allow using contactless payment services besides
      Apple Pay in banking and wallet apps.

That isn’t to say these changes are being made willingly. Apple has fiercely contested its services falling under the DMA, arguing that it actually runs five separate App Stores (which would be conveniently small enough to avoid the EU regulation) instead of a single platform. While that gambit wasn’t successful, it did convince the EU commission that iMessage doesn’t qualify as gatekeeper service, avoiding requirements to make it interoperable with other messaging platforms.

The changes rolling out for European users in iOS 17.4, particularly support for third-party app stores, are intended to address long-standing complaints about Apple’s walled-off ecosystem. But numerous developers and critics have described them as insufficient or even “malicious compliance.” Apple’s new rules would require App Store alternatives to either pay a €0.50 (~54 cents USD) Core Technology Fee for apps with over 1 million downloads or stick to the 15 to 30 percent cut the company currently takes.

Given that, companies haven’t exactly lined up to accept Apple’s offer. Although Epic announced one, it has since had its developer account banned. Other third-party app marketplaces have been announced by MacPaw and Mobivention, but only the latter claims it’ll be available for iOS users on March 7th, right after the DMA takes effect. Similarly, while rival web browser providers like Google and Mozilla are seemingly experimenting with new iOS browsers, neither company has officially announced when those apps will be available.

Meta

Facebook operator Meta has a long history of absorbing rival social networks and messaging services, as well as a powerful ad platform. The services covered by the DMA are concentrated in these areas:

   • Facebook Marketplace

   • Facebook

   • Instagram

   • WhatsApp

   • Messenger

   • Meta Ads

Targeted advertising is Meta’s bread and butter, and last year it aimed to address concerns by letting users pay to avoid ads — launching a €9.99 per month ad-free tier for Facebook and Instagram, then giving the tier (as of March 1st) an extra fee for linked accounts. It also paused ads for users younger than 18, although its long-term plans there are less clear.

The choice to lean on a paid option resulted in a lawsuit from the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), which claimed the “very high subscription fee” meant users “do not have a real choice.” In January, Meta announced the gradual rollout of some other data protection features, including the ability to sever linked Facebook and Instagram accounts and manage them separately.

But the most exciting change for many people is the prospect of third-party cross-platform messaging, which Meta announced for its WhatsApp service last year. On March 6th, Meta explained how it will maintain end-to-end encryption in WhatsApp and Messenger while warning that it can’t guarantee that other services’ apps will be good stewards of its users’ messages. There’s still no firm timeline for when users will get third-party chats, though.

These changes are in the works despite Meta appealing some pieces of its gatekeeper designation. In November, it argued that Messenger and Marketplace didn’t belong on the list, saying the former was an integrated Facebook feature and the latter a consumer-to-consumer service where Meta doesn’t act as an intermediary. As of this week’s deadline, the challenge remains ongoing.

Amazon

Amazon’s retail powerhouse is built on a complex data collection system and huge third-party marketplace, which some sellers complain has given it an unfair leg up. It has two services that fall under the DMA: its online marketplace and its advertising business.

The e-commerce giant has outlined some of the changes it’s making to the way businesses manage their ads, as well as customers’ control over them. It’s already started asking customers who visit its EU store for permission to collect their information for personalized ads. As noted on this support page, accepting or denying these terms will affect Amazon’s ability to collect information across its entertainment services, including Amazon Prime Video, IMDb, and Twitch, as well as on its smart home devices, Kindle e-readers, app stores, operating systems, and Fire tablets. That could make it harder for Amazon to sell and surface personalized ads for users in the EU.

Additionally, Amazon has committed to giving advertisers and publishers with campaigns in the EU “new, expanded reports” that they can access from Amazon’s website. These reports contain more detailed information on how much an advertiser is paying for ads, as well as how much a publisher receives from ads displayed on a third-party website or app. The company is also rolling out a new “clean room” for advertisers with campaigns in the EU, allowing them to “independently verify the success and impact of their campaigns in a privacy-safe, cloud-based environment.”

What Amazon hasn’t detailed yet, though, is what kind of changes — if any — it’s making to ensure its marketplace fosters competition under the DMA. The rules could mean the company can’t give its brands preferential treatment in search results or copy products from third-party sellers, both of which Amazon has been accused of in the past. And Amazon has long been the subject of antitrust scrutiny in the EU, where regulators accused it of misusing seller data to get ahead of the competition. The company settled these charges in 2022 and promised to stop using non-public data, as well as make it easier for more sellers to appear within its “Featured Offer” box (formerly called the “Buy Box”), where products get high visibility.

Microsoft

Microsoft’s Windows operating system falls under the DMA’s regulations, and that’s changing how much the company promotes — or lets users avoid — numerous other apps and services inside it.

The software giant has had to make a range of changes to comply, including adding the ability to disable its built-in Bing web search, offering a new option to uninstall its Edge browser, and even allowing companies like Google to add their own custom web searches into Windows. These options are available to users in EEA markets — which includes the EU countries and also Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.

Microsoft will allow Windows machines in EEA markets to remove Bing results from Windows Search, so Google could potentially list its own search results here instead. Third parties like Google will also be able to add feeds into the Windows Widget board. As part of the DMA rules to make it easier to uninstall preinstalled apps, Windows 11 users will also be able to uninstall the Camera, Cortana, and Photos apps.

All of these changes have already been rolling out to machines in the EEA, getting Microsoft ready for compliance day. We’re now waiting to see if Google decides to release its own add-in for Google search results in the Windows Search interface. There could potentially be a number of Windows Widgets providers soon, too.

The EU initially listed a number of other Microsoft tools as gatekeeper services. But Microsoft successfully appealed to have Edge, Bing, and Microsoft Advertising spared from the DMA, after regulators agreed with Microsoft’s argument that these services don’t qualify — Microsoft argues they in fact “operate as challengers in the market.”

ByteDance

Chinese giant ByteDance is the only non-US company designated as a gatekeeper under the DMA so far, and it’s got only one covered service: the social network TikTok.

ByteDance shared how TikTok plans to comply with the DMA earlier this week. The platform launched an API that will let European users transfer their data to other apps that have registered with TikTok to use the tool. Registered developers can port posts, followers, and other activity from TikTok to their own apps with users’ permission. TikTok said it’s also improved its “Download your Data” tool that lets individual users export and download their posts and other information. And it will have “enhanced data portability solutions” for business accounts.

But these changes are being made while the company appeals its designation as a gatekeeper, claiming that on the contrary, TikTok “is arguably the most capable challenger to more entrenched platform businesses.” It argues that the Commission based its analysis on ByteDance’s global market cap, which the company says reflects business lines that don’t even operate in Europe, and that TikTok itself does not meet the necessary revenue threshold.

ByteDance’s inclusion has a unique political dimension here, cutting against some critics’ arguments that the EU is unfairly targeting American companies. (A second non-US-based company, Samsung, was initially named but later removed from the gatekeeper list.) California Democrat Lou Correa, the ranking member on the US House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, led a letter late last year with more than 20 bipartisan colleagues, criticizing the “clear targeting of U.S. companies by EU policies, especially under the DMA.” The lawmakers critiqued the fact that the European Commission didn’t name Chinese firms like Huawei, Tencent, and Alibaba gatekeepers “despite the fact that they are competing aggressively with U.S. firms in the EU and other markets.”

Update March 6th, 2024, 2:05PM ET: Updated Apple and Meta sections to reflect current news.

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Apple / Apple Could Be the First Target of Europe’s Tough New Tech Law
« Last post by javajolt on March 13, 2024, 05:24:46 AM »
An architect of the EU’s tough new Digital Markets Acts says Apple would be a logical first candidate for investigation under the law, which aims to “break open” tech platforms.

Europe changed the rules of the internet this week when the Digital Markets Act took effect, holding the biggest tech companies to tough new standards. Now the world is waiting to see which giant will be first to fall foul of the law. One of the architects of the DMA says Apple is a strong candidate for the first formal investigation, describing the company as “low-hanging fruit.”

Apple has faced intensifying pressure in recent years from competitors, regulators, and courts in both Europe and the US over the restrictions it places on appmakers who must rely on its App Store to reach millions of users. Yesterday Apple terminated the developer account of Fortnite publisher Epic Games, which has challenged the company in US courts and recently announced its intention to launch a rival to the Apple App Store.

German MEP Andreas Schwab, who led the negotiations that finalized the DMA on behalf of the EU Parliament, says that makes Apple a likely first target for noncompliance. “[This] gives me a very clear expectation that they want to be the first,” he tells WIRED. “Apple’s approach is a bit weird on all this and therefore it’s low-hanging fruit.”

Schwab is not involved in enforcement of the DMA. That’s overseen by the European Commission, which has already demanded “further explanation” as to why Apple terminated Epic’s account and is evaluating whether this violates the DMA.

“Apple’s approach to the Digital Markets Act was guided by two simple goals: complying with the law and reducing the inevitable, increased risks the DMA creates for our EU users,” says the company in a statement sent to WIRED by Apple spokesperson Rob Saunders. Apple has said on its website that alternative app stores carry the risk of malware, illicit code, and other harmful content.

The DMA’s rules that aim to “break open” tech platforms require Apple to allow iPhone users to download apps from places other than Apple’s official App Store. The Epic Games Store, announced in January, intended to be launched by the Fortnite-maker Epic, would have been the first alternative app store to take advantage of the new system.

Apple tells WIRED it had the right to terminate Epic’s accounts according to a 2021 California court ruling. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has been a vocal critic of what he styles as Apple’s “app store monopoly” for years, although in January, in a victory for the smartphone maker, the US Supreme Court denied a request to hear the latest episode in a lengthy antitrust dispute between the two companies.

The DMA went into force at midnight on March 7 in Brussels—3 pm in Silicon Valley. From that moment, six of the world’s biggest tech companies—Apple, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and TikTok’s Beijing-based owner ByteDance—must comply with a suite of new rules designed to improve competition in digital markets.

In addition to Apple having to allow outside apps, Microsoft Windows will no longer have Microsoft-owned Bing as its default search tool; users of Meta’s WhatsApp will be able to communicate with people on rival messaging apps; and Google and Amazon will have to tweak their search results to create more room for rivals. Companies that don’t comply with the new rules can be fined up to 20 percent of their global turnover.

The new rules should cause the European internet to “change for the better,” says Schwab, a center-right member of the European Parliament. “To allow more openness, more fairness, and most of all, more innovation and therefore new services—that’s the idea.”

Schwab’s comments add to a recent chorus of criticism targeting Apple. The EU’s antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, told Bloomberg earlier this week that the DMA will initially focus on sorting out Big Tech’s app stores. “I think it’s important you can have more than one app store on your phone,” she said on Tuesday.

Following Apple’s removal of Epic, the tone in the hallways of the commission had become more urgent. “Under the #DMA, there is no room for threats by gatekeepers to silence developers,” said Thierry Breton, the EU’s industry chief, on X on Thursday, apparently referring to allegations by Epic’s Sweeney that Apple had blocked the company’s account because of the CEO’s critical posts on X. “I have asked our services to look into Apple’s termination of Epic’s developer account as a matter of priority.”

Flexing the DMA’s powers on Apple’s App Store would advertise how the law can improve life online for the general public, Schwab says. “I think the App Store would be a good example to show what we want to achieve with the DMA,” he says. “They will just see more apps and they will like these apps.”

Giving people choice over where they get mobile apps by requiring Apple and Google to permit alternative app stores on devices is seen as a key pillar of the DMA. In addition to giving users more choice, app developers will also gain more opportunities to innovate, increasing competition, says Schwab. “With alternative app stores we can make markets a bit broader.”

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The push to get ByteDance to sell off its TikTok social network is reportedly gaining some interest from a well-known businessman. A new report from The Wall Street Journal claims that former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is trying to find some more financial partners in an effort to acquire TikTok.

Kotick departed Activision Blizzard in late 2023 after Microsoft acquired the game publisher. The WSJ report claims Kotick has discussed purchasing TikTok with ByteDance co-founder Zhang Yiming. He's also reportedly looking for financial partners to help raise money for such a deal, which could end up costing hundreds of billions of dollars.

The story said he talked about such a prospect last week at a conference with a group of people that included OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The theory is that if OpenAI joined an effort to buy the social network, it could use its data to help train its GPT AI models.

This activity comes just a few days after the 50 members of the US House of Representatives House Energy and Commerce Committee voted unanimously for a bill that, if it becomes law, would demand ByteDance sell off TikTok within 165 days of the law being passed. If this doesn't happen, the TikTok app could be banned from US app stores.

The bill is expected to be voted on by the full House this week and then passed by the US Senate. If that happens, it would finally be signed into law by President Joe Biden, who has already indicated he will sign it if it reaches his desk.

Critics of TikTok claim that, since ByteDance is a China-owned company, it could be asked to send the data it has collected to the Chinese government. ByteDance has repeatedly denied it would do that and that the bill that passed through the House committee last week "has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States."

The WSJ story does say that some members of the US Senate have already expressed concern about this new bill and if it violates First Amendment rights to free speech. The bill would have to be passed by 60 of the 100 US Senators before it heads over for President Biden's signature.

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Hitachi Vantara’s software streams ultra high-resolution content to both interior and exterior displays


(Image credit: Sphere Entertainment)

We’ve written previously about some of the technology that powers the Las Vegas Sphere, including the 16K interior LED screen, and the ultra-high resolution 18K camera system. Now, details have emerged of the storage employed by the massive music and entertainment arena located east of the Las Vegas Strip.

Everything about the Sphere is bleeding edge, and Hitachi Vantara has detailed how its software technology processes Sphere's original and immersive content and helps stream it to both the 160,000 square-foot interior LED display and 580,000 square-foot Exosphere.

Hitachi Content Software for File, which Hitachi describes as a “high-performance, software-defined, distributed parallel filesystem storage solution”  is an integral part of things. It consists of 27 nodes, with 4PB of flash storage for playback within Sphere.

Postcard from Earth

The system streams content in real-time to 7thSense media servers, each streaming 4K video at 60 frames per second. As you might expect, this is a world-first in terms of technology capability at this scale.

"Sphere represents a new, completely immersive and visually powerful entertainment experience," said Octavian Tanase, Chief Product Officer, Hitachi Vantara. "To make sure that the technology behind it was ready to meet the challenge, Hitachi Vantara worked closely with the Sphere team to test, measure, and enhance how the data is processed, streamed, and projected. Quality-wise, the resolution and color are second to none, and this project has exceeded our already high expectations."

For Darren Aronofsky's original immersive film, Postcard from Earth, the system had to handle over 400GB/s of throughput at sub 5 milliseconds of latency and a 12-bit color display at a 444 subsampling.

"Sphere is home to many firsts, one of which is streaming immersive, high-resolution video content on a scale that has never been done before," added Alex Luthwaite, SVP, Show Systems Technology, Sphere Entertainment. "Hitachi Vantara worked with our team to develop a solution that's fast, reliable, and efficient."

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The earliest known release of Microsoft's 32-bit version of OS/2 is now out there, and intrepid code archeologists have it running. It's a glimpse into an alternative computing universe.


The long-lost Microsoft OS/2 2 – BNIB, as they say on certain popular online auction sites (click to enlarge)

Last month we covered the news of the discovery and purchase of the only known surviving copy of 32-bit OS/2 from Microsoft – as opposed to the IBM version, the one which became a retail product and a descendant of which is still around today.

Reg reader Brian Ledbetter bought it, opened the still-sealed box, imaged the disks, and even managed to install it and take a few screenshots. Now, two of the internet's experts in getting early PC operating systems running today have managed to fire it up, and you can see the results.

Why such interest in this nearly third-of-a-century old, unreleased OS? Because this is the way the PC industry very nearly went. This SDK came out in June 1990, just one month after Windows 3.0. If 32-bit OS/2 had launched as planned, Windows 3 would have been the last version before it was absorbed into OS/2 and disappeared. There would never have been any 32-bit versions: no Windows NT, no Windows 95; no Explorer, no Start menu or taskbars. That, in turn, might well have killed off Apple as well. No iPod, no iPhone, no fondleslabs. Twenty-first century computers would be unimaginably different.

The surprise here is that we can see a glimpse of this world that never happened. The discovery of this pre-release OS shows how very nearly ready it was in 1990. IBM didn't release its solo version until April 1992, the same month as Windows 3.1 – but now, we can see it was nearly ready two years earlier.


This is a version message nobody has seen in over a third of a century

That's why Michal Nečásek of the OS/2 Museum called his look The Future That Never Was. He uncovered a couple of significant bugs, but more impressively, he found workarounds for both, and got both features working fine.

OS/2 2 could run multiple DOS VMs at once, but in the preview, they wouldn't open – due to use of an undocumented instruction which Intel did implement in the Pentium MMX and later processors. Secondly, the bundled network client wouldn't install – but removing a single file got that working fine. That alone is a significant difference between Microsoft's OS/2 2.0 and IBM's version: Big Blue didn't include networking until Warp Connect 3 in 1995.

His verdict?

Quote
The 6.78 build of OS/2 2.0 feels surprisingly stable and complete. The cover letter that came with the SDK stressed that Microsoft developers had been using the OS/2 pre-release for day-to-day work.

Over at Virtually Fun, Neozeed also took an actual look at Microsoft OS/2 2.0, carefully recreating that screenshot from PC Magazine in May 1990. He even managed to get some Windows 2 programs running, although this preview release did not yet have a Windows subsystem.


The preview release has the Desktop Manager and File Manager UI of OS/2 1.x – and Windows 3.x (click to enlarge)

On his Internet Archive page, he has disk images and downloadable virtual machines so that you can run this yourself under VMware or 86Box.

The other leg of the Trousers of Time

If we try to put this in historical context, it may help to explain why people are so interested in this. IBM invented the PC, but it didn't develop the machine's OS. Neither did Microsoft: it licensed it in from Seattle Computer Products, as we described in January when the oldest known version was rediscovered.

In 1987, IBM announced the second generation of the PC platform and its operating system. The hardware part was the PS/2 range of computers, whose legacy includes PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, the VGA graphics standard and monitor plug, and 3.5 inch 1.4MB floppies. The software part was OS/2: the planned future of PC operating systems, co-developed with Microsoft.

OS/2 was designed and planned to overcome all the biggest limitations of MS-DOS: just one program running at a time, limited to 1MB of RAM (less quite a lot of space for ROMs, I/O ports and things), a maximum of 32MB per disk partition, 8.3-character filenames, and no built-in networking or standard GUI.

The problem was, however, that OS/2 version 1.x targeted 80286 computers. The 16-bit 80286 processor, released in 1982, had many limitations compared to the 80386, which was released in 1985 – two years before OS/2 1.0. It wasn't that the 80386DX could address an inconceivable 4GB of RAM, 256 times more than the 80286. The key feature was that the '386 could multitask multiple DOS virtual machines. In 1987, Microsoft had already demonstrated an OS/2 prototype codenamed FOOTBALL which could multitask several DOS apps. You can even try it in your browser.

When OS/2 launched, almost anyone who could afford computers for work ran DOS. All the key business programs in the world were DOS apps. OS/2 1.x's fancy multitasking was worthless, because it didn't work with the software already out there. It's generally believed that targeting OS/2 1 at the '286 was at the insistence of IBM, which had sold a lot of expensive 80286-based PS/2s. It had promised those customers OS/2.

At the time, the Reg FOSS desk was a callow young software-support bod for an IBM reseller, worked on a lot of Model 50 and Model 60 PS/2s, and can attest that most of those customers neither knew nor cared. Anyone choosing IBM kit was not a price-sensitive buyer.

OS/2 1 flopped.

For a third of a century, the way the history has been told is that an internal skunkworks project at Microsoft became Windows 3.0, it was a surprise hit, and as a result, Microsoft dropped out of the OS/2 project to pursue Windows instead. IBM continued on its own, first, and arguably fatally, putting out OS/2 1.3, then finishing OS/2 2.0 and releasing it much later, in 1992 – when it was too little, too late.

This unfinished preview release of OS/2 2.0 shows that the story wasn't so simple. IBM didn't heroically struggle on alone for two more years to complete OS/2 2. Getting build 6.78 running shows that the year Microsoft released Windows 3.0, it already had a working 32-bit OS/2 2.0, almost ready to go.



Bootnote

In our previous story, we didn't spell this part out clearly enough and some readers missed it: what turned up on eBay was Microsoft's pre-release 32-bit OS/2 software development kit – but along with the SDK's compilers and so on came a preview release of the OS itself. Other versions of the SDK are out there, but they don't contain the actual OS, which for 34 years was only known from a few ancient screenshots.

What Mr Ledbetter bought is Preview Release 2. As that number implies, there was a Preview Release 1 of Microsoft's OS/2 2 SDK, and the OS/2 Museum has a copy of the new release from December 29, 1989. Sadly, though, that may be lost forever. ®

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Social Media / WhatsApp Suddenly Issues Surprise Update Warning For All Users
« Last post by javajolt on March 12, 2024, 08:09:42 AM »
WhatsApp is about to launch its biggest upgrade in years—but there’s a surprise catch; the messaging giant has just warned users about a serious new problem, and you need to be very careful...


WhatsApp's new warning impacts its 2 billion users around the world GETTY
The devil is always in the details—and no more so than with the new WhatsApp upgrade that has generated countless headlines in recent weeks. Meta’s messaging giant has confirmed its plans to comply with Europe’s DMA and open its platform to third-party chats.

Meta has just released technical details as to how this will actually work. Unfortunately, it doesn’t—at least not the way it is presented. The new guidance delivers a stark warning about the fatal flaw in the update—a nasty surprise for users expecting an exciting new world of unified, secure messaging.

As everyone likely knows by now, under Europe’s DMA, WhatsApp and other so-called gateway technologies need to open up to rival services—the same regulations that have dragged Apple into the scary new world of third-party app stores. WhatsApp stole a march on others by sharing early details on how it would comply, while suggesting this would work globally, not just in Europe.

Now the platform has gone a step further, sharing more of the technical detail underpinning its approach. There’s no real new technical news here—we knew most of it. But it does shine a light on some of the ways in which different apps will interface and ensure integrity between them. That said, it’s quiet on operational details, such as how users will actually find one another in the real world.

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We’re going to let you in on a little cybersecurity secret… There’s malware on Mac computers. There pretty much always has been.

As revealed in our 2024 ThreatDown State of Malware report, a full 11% of all detections recorded by Malwarebytes on Mac computers in 2023 were for different variants of malware—the catch-all term that cybersecurity researchers use to refer to ransomware, trojans, info stealers, worms, viruses, and more.

That 11% figure may not sound imposing but remember that many people today still believe that Apple devices, including Mac computers, are invulnerable to cyberinfections because of some sort of vague “Apple magic.”

In reality, “Apple magic” is more a byproduct of old advertising (this 2006 commercial from the “I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC” series did irreparable harm) and faulty conclusions concerning cybersecurity’s biggest breaches and attacks: People mistakenly believe that because most attacks target Windows computers and servers, no attacks target Macs.

The truth is far more nuanced, as the visible, overwhelming focus of cyberattacks on Windows machines is a consequence of Microsoft’s long-standing success in business computing.

For decades, every multinational corporation, every local travel agency, every dentist, every hospital, every school, government, and city hall practically ran on Windows. This mass adoption was good for Microsoft and its revenue, but it also drew and maintained the interests of cybercriminals, who would develop malware that could impact the highest number of victims. This is why the biggest attacks, even today, predominantly target Windows-based malware and the sometimes-unpatched vulnerabilities found in Windows software and applications. 

Essentially, as Windows is the biggest target, cybercriminals zero in their efforts respectively.

But new information last year revealed that could all be changing.

Mac malware tactics shifted in 2023

Apple’s desktop and laptop operating system, macOS, represents a 31% share of US desktop operating systems, and roughly 25% of all businesses reportedly utilize Mac devices somewhere in their networks.

Already, the cybercriminals have taken note.

In April 2023, the most successful and dangerous ransomware in the world—LockBit—was found to have a variant developed for Mac. Used in at least 1,018 known attacks last year, LockBit ransomware, and the operators behind it, destroyed countless businesses, ruined many organizations, and, according to the US Department of Justice, brought in more than $120 million before being disrupted by a coordinated law enforcement effort in February of this year.

While the LockBit variant for Mac was not operational upon discovery, the LockBit ransomware gang said at the time that it was “actively being developed.” Fortunately, LockBit suffered enormous blows this year, and the ransomware gang is probably less concerned with Mac malware development and more concerned with “avoiding prison.”

Separately, in September 2023, Malwarebytes discovered a cybercriminal campaign that tricked Mac users into accidentally installing a type of malware that can steal passwords, browser data, cookies, files, and cryptocurrency. The malware, called Atomic Stealer (or AMOS for short) was delivered through “malvertising,” a malware delivery tactic that abuses Google ads to send everyday users to malicious websites that—though they may appear legitimate—fool people into downloading malware.

In this campaign, when users searched on Google for the financial marketing trading app “TradingView,” they were sometimes shown a malicious search result that appeared entirely authentic: a website with TradingView branding was visible, and download buttons for Windows, Mac, and Linux were listed.

But users who clicked the Mac download button instead received AMOS.


This malvertising site mimics TradingView to fool users into downloading malware for different
operating systems.


Just months later, AMOS again wriggled its way onto Mac computers, this time through a new delivery chain that has more typically targeted Windows users.

In November, Malwarebytes found AMOS being distributed through a malware delivery chain known as “ClearFake.” The ClearFake campaign tricks users into believing they’re downloading an approved web browser update. That has frequently meant a lot of malicious prompts mimicking Google Chrome’s branding and update language, but the more recent campaign imitated the default browser on Mac devices—Safari.


A template is used that mimics the official Apple websites and webpages to convince users
to download a Safari “update” that instead contains malware.


As Malwarebytes Labs wrote at the time:

Quote
“This may very well be the first time we see one of the main social engineering campaigns, previously reserved for Windows, branch out not only in terms of geolocation but also operating system.”

Replace “magic” with Malwarebytes

Cyberthreats on Mac aren’t non-existent, they’re just different. But different threats still need effective protection, which is where Malwarebytes Premium can help.

Malwarebytes Premium detects and blocks the most common infostealers that target Macs—including AMOS—along with annoying browser hijackers and adware threats such as Genieo, Vsearch, Crossrider, and more. Stay protected, proactively, with Malwarebytes Premium for Mac.

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I've written before about my nostalgia for the Windows XP- or Windows 7-era "clean install," when you could substantially improve any given pre-made PC merely by taking an official direct-from-Microsoft Windows install disk and blowing away the factory install, ridding yourself of 60-day antivirus trials, WildTangent games, outdated drivers, and whatever other software your PC maker threw on it to help subsidize its cost.

You can still do that with Windows 11—in fact, it's considerably easier than it was in those '00s versions of Windows, with multiple official Microsoft-sanctioned ways to download and create an install disk, something you used to need to acquire on your own. But the resulting Windows installation is a lot less "clean" than it used to be, given the continual creep of new Microsoft apps and services into more and more parts of the core Windows experience.

I frequently write about Windows, Edge, and other Microsoft-adjacent technologies as part of my day job, and I sign into my daily-use PCs with a Microsoft account, so my usage patterns may be atypical for many Ars Technica readers. But for anyone who uses Windows, Edge, or both, I thought it might be useful to detail what I'm doing to clean up a clean install of Windows, minimizing (if not totally eliminating) the number of annoying notifications, Microsoft services, and unasked-for apps that we have to deal with.

That said, this is not a guide about creating a minimally stripped-down, telemetry-free version of Windows that removes anything other than what Microsoft allows you to remove. There are plenty of experimental hacks dedicated to that sort of thing—NTDev's Tiny11 project is one—but removing built-in Windows components can cause unexpected compatibility and security problems, and Tiny11 has historically had issues with basic table-stakes stuff like "installing security updates."

Avoiding Microsoft account sign-in

The most contentious part of Windows 11's setup process relative to earlier Windows versions is that it mandates Microsoft account sign-in, with none of the readily apparent "limited account" fallbacks that existed in Windows 10. As of Windows 11 22H2, that's true of both the Home and Pro editions.

There are two reasons I can think of not to sign in with a Microsoft account. The first is that you want nothing to do with a Microsoft account, thank you very much. Signing in makes you more of a target for Microsoft 365, OneDrive, or Game Pass subscription upsells since all you need to do is add them to an account that already exists, and Windows setup will offer subscriptions to each if you sign in first.

The second—which is my situation—is that you do use a Microsoft account because it offers some handy benefits like automated encryption of your local drive (having those encryption keys saved to my account has saved me a couple of times) or syncing of browser info and some preferences. But you don't want to sign in at setup, either because you're just testing something or you prefer your user folder to be located at "C:\Users\Andrew" rather than "C:\Users\."

Regardless of your reasoning, if you don't want to bother with sign-in at setup, you have two options (three for Windows 11 Pro users):

Use the command line

During Windows 11 Setup, after selecting a language and keyboard layout but before connecting to a network, hit Shift+F10 to open the command prompt. Type OOBE\BYPASSNRO, hit Enter, and wait for the PC to reboot.

When it comes back, click "I don't have Internet" on the network setup screen, and you'll have recovered the option to use "limited setup" (aka a local account) again, like older versions of Windows 10 and 11 offered.

For Windows 11 Pro

Windows 11 Pro users, take a journey with me.

Proceed through the Windows 11 setup as you normally would, including connecting to a network and allowing the system to check for updates. Eventually, you'll be asked whether you're setting your PC up for personal use or for "work or school."

Select the work or school option, then sign-in options, at which point you'll finally be asked whether you plan to join the PC to a domain. Tell it you are (even though you aren't), and you'll see the normal workflow for creating a "limited" local account.

This one won't work if you don't want to start your relationship with a new computer by lying to it, but it also doesn't require going to the command line.

Using the Rufus tool

Rufus is a venerable open source app for creating bootable USB media for both Windows and Linux. If you find yourself doing a lot of Windows 11 installs and don't want to deal with Microsoft accounts, Rufus lets you tweak the install media itself so that the "limited setup" options always appear, no matter which edition of Windows you're using.

To start, grab Rufus, and then a fresh Windows 11 ISO file from Microsoft. You'll also want an 8GB or larger USB drive; I'd recommend a 16GB or larger drive that supports USB 3.0 speeds, both to make things go a little faster and to leave yourself extra room for drivers, app installers, and anything else you might want to set a new PC up for the first time. (I also like this SanDisk drive that has a USB-C connector on one end and a USB-A connector on the other to ensure compatibility with all kinds of PCs.)

Fire up Rufus, select your USB drive and the Windows ISO, and hit Start to copy over all of the Windows files. After you hit Start, you'll be asked if you want to disable some system requirements checks, remove the Microsoft account requirement, or turn off all the data collection settings that Windows asks you about the first time you set it up. What you do here is up to you; all I usually turn off is the sign-in requirement, but disabling the Secure Boot and TPM checks doesn't stop those features from working once Windows is installed and running.

The rest of Windows 11 setup

The main thing I do here, other than declining any and all Microsoft 365 or Game Pass offers, is to turn all the toggles on the privacy settings screen to "no." This covers location services, the Find My Device feature, and four toggles that collectively send a small pile of usage and browsing data to Microsoft that it uses "to enhance your Microsoft experiences." Pro tip: Hit Tab and then hit the spacebar six times each to quickly toggle these without clicking or scrolling.

Of these, I can imagine enabling Find My Device if you're worried about theft or location services if you want Windows and apps to be able to access your location. But I tend not to send any extra telemetry or browsing data other than the basics (the only exception being on machines I enroll in the Windows Insider Preview program for testing since Microsoft requires you to send more detailed usage data from those machines to help it test its beta software). If you want to change any of these settings after setup, they're all in the Settings app under Privacy & Security.

Cleaning up Windows 11





Once all this is done, you'll reboot, and you'll be at the Windows desktop. The first thing to do is to install any drivers you need, plus Windows updates.

When you first connect to the Internet, Windows will also automatically pull down a few extraneous third-party apps and app shortcuts. The first thing I usually do is right-click each of them on the Start menu and remove/uninstall them. Ever since I wrote that piece six months ago, the assortment of apps I don't want has shifted a little, possibly the result of some kind of quiet Facebook-Microsoft breakup. WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger are out; Grammarly, Camo Studio, and Luminar Neo - AI Photo Editor are in. Spotify remains unchanged.

Most of these third-party apps and shortcuts won't show up among your installed apps unless you run them, so removing them directly from the Start menu is the best way to get rid of them.



The other apps and services included in a fresh Windows install generally at least have the excuse of being first-party software, though their usefulness will be highly user-specific: Xbox, the new Outlook app, Clipchamp, and LinkedIn are the ones that stand out, plus the ad-driven free-to-play version of the Solitaire suite that replaced the simple built-in version during the Windows 8 era.

Rather than tell you what I remove, I'll tell you everything that can be removed from the Installed Apps section of the Settings app (also quickly accessible by right-clicking the Start button in the taskbar). You can make your own decisions here; I generally leave the in-box versions of classic Windows apps like Sound Recorder and Calculator while removing things I don't use, like To Do or Clipchamp. This list should be current for a fresh, fully updated install of Windows 11 23H2, at least in the US, and it doesn't include any apps that might be specific to your hardware, like audio or GPU settings apps.

   • Calculator

   • Camera

   • Cortana (if installed)

   • Feedback Hub

   • Mail and Calendar

   • Maps

   • Media Player

   • Microsoft 365 (Office): Without a Microsoft 365 subscription, this is just a
      wrapper/redirect to the free online versions of the Office apps

   • Microsoft Clipchamp

   • Microsoft OneDrive: Removing this, if you don't use it, will also get rid of notifications
      about OneDrive and turning on Windows Backup

   • Microsoft To Do

   • Microsoft Update Health Tools

   • Movies & TV

   • News

   • Notepad

   • Outlook (new)

   • Paint

   • People

   • Photos

   • Power Automate

   • Quick Assist

   • Remote Desktop Connection

   • Snipping Tool

   • Solitaire & Casual Games

   • Sound Recorder

   • Sticky Notes

   • Terminal

   • Weather

   • Web Media Extensions

   • Windows Clock

   • Xbox

   • Xbox Live

One of the changes Microsoft made in Windows 11 23H2 was to move almost all of Windows' non-removable apps to a System Components section, where they can be configured but not removed; this is where things like Phone Link, the Microsoft Store, Dev Home, and the Game Bar have ended up. The exception is Edge and its associated updater and WebView components; these are not removable, but they aren't listed as "system components" for some reason, either.

Other settings changes (or, “stop suggesting things to me”)





The next thing to do is to change more Windows settings to minimize the number of annoying upsell notifications and "it's time to finish setting up your PC" messages you see. Again, what you leave on or off is up to you, but generally, these changes should make Windows feel less annoying and intrusive.

   • Right-click the Taskbar and click Taskbar settings. Turn off the icon for the Copilot preview
      if you don't want to use it (if you're not using a Microsoft account, you may not see it at
      all). I also disable Widgets, which are useful if you want to see local weather at a glance
      in the taskbar, but the Widgets screen itself is generally just a display mechanism for
      Microsoft's junky Microsoft Start newsfeed. I also shrink the Search button to just an icon
      so it takes up less space.

   • Open Settings, go to Privacy & Security, and click General. Even if you disabled all the
      data collection options at Setup, there are still four things enabled here, all related to
      data tracking and content suggestions. I switch them all off. The "suggested content in
      the Settings app" one in particular disables some annoying Microsoft 365 reminders.

   • Again under Privacy & Security, open Diagnostics & Feedback and set "Feedback
      frequency" to Never.

   • Under Privacy & Security, click Search permissions and disable "Show search highlights"
      under "More settings." This cleans up the Search menu quite a bit, focusing it on searches
      you've done yourself and locally installed apps.

   • Still in Settings, navigate to System, and then Notifications, and turn off the "Suggested"
      notifications. This may not appear if you're not signed in with a Microsoft account.

   • Still in the notifications settings, scroll all the way down and expand the additional
      settings. Uncheck all three boxes here, which should get rid of all the "finish setting up
      your PC" prompts, among other things.

Bonus: Cleaning up Microsoft Edge





I use Edge out of pragmatism rather than love—"the speed, compatibility, extensions ecosystem, and stability of Chrome with all of the Google stuff removed" is still a strong pitch, though it's gotten less so as Microsoft has pushed its own services more and more aggressively. In a vacuum, Firefox aligns better with what I want from a browser, but it just doesn't respond well to my normal tab-monster habits, despite several earnest attempts to switch.

The main problem with Edge on a new install of Windows is that even more than Windows, it exists in a universe where no one would ever switch search engines or shut off any of Microsoft's value adds except by accident. Case in point: Signing in with a Microsoft account will happily sync your bookmarks, extensions, and many kinds of personal data. But settings for search engine changes, or for opting out of Microsoft services, do not sync between systems and require a fresh setup each time.

Here are the Edge settings I change to maximize the browser's usefulness (and usable screen space) while minimizing annoying distractions; it involves turning off most of the stuff Microsoft has added to the Chromium version of Edge since it entered public preview five years ago. Here's a list of things to tweak whether you sign in with a Microsoft account or not.

   • On the Start page when you first open the browser, hit the Settings gear in the upper-
     right corner. Change the layout to Focused, turn off sponsored links, and turn off Content
     to hide the spammy newsfeed. Turn on the image of the day if you want to! Click the
     "your privacy choices" link at the bottom of the menu and turn off all the suggested ads
      and third-party data-sharing toggles you see.

   • Click the Settings gear in the lower-right of the window to open the sidebar settings. I
      turn the sidebar off, then click Copilot and turn off both Show Copilot and Show Shopping
      Notifications. If you use Copilot or the sidebar, feel free to keep them, but generally, I find
      that they take up space I'd rather use for other things.

   • From there, select Profiles in the left Settings sidebar. Click Microsoft Rewards, and then
      turn it off.

   • From here, go to the Privacy, Search, & Services settings. I set tracking prevention to
      "strict," though if you use some other kind of content blocker, this may be redundant.

   • Disable the toggle under "Personalization & advertising," if it's on.

   • I disable everything under the Services header. If you want to switch from Bing, click
      "Address bar and search" and switch to your preferred engine, whether that's Google,
      DuckDuckGo, or something else. Then click "Search suggestions and filters" and disable
      "Show me search and site suggestions using my typed characters."

   • Under Languages, you can disable "use text prediction" to prevent things you type from
      being sent to Microsoft and switch the spellchecker from Microsoft Editor to Basic if you
      want. (I don't actually mind Microsoft Editor, but it's worth remembering if you're trying
      to minimize the amount of data Edge sends back to the company.)

Windows-as-a-nuisance

There have been many good things about the Windows-as-a-service era that kicked off in 2015 with the launch of Windows 10. Support for new hardware has been added at a steadier clip than before. Generally, stepping up from one version of Windows 10 or 11 to the next (from 21H2 to 22H2, et cetera) is less disruptive than it was to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8, making it easier to stay current. And Microsoft has built a robust system for announcing and distributing new test builds that has helped it mostly avoid breaking stuff as it releases updates, unlike some of the early Windows 10 updates.

The problem is when Microsoft uses Windows-as-a-service as an excuse to push all of its other apps and services, which Windows' default settings allow it to do pretty much any time it wants. You can't change what those defaults are or when Microsoft adds or removes new built-in apps or taskbar icons. (I feel like a feature needs to have the "beta" label removed before you add it to the taskbar of every Windows PC on earth, but that's just my opinion).

The settings changes we've recommended here may not fix everything, but they can at least give you some peace, shoving Microsoft into the background and allowing you to do what you want with your PC without a constant hassle.

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Microsoft / Microsoft details EU DMA compliance changes it has made to Windows
« Last post by javajolt on March 11, 2024, 08:40:54 AM »


Back in November, Microsoft announced that it was making major changes to Windows so as to comply with the European Union (E.U.)'s Digital Markets Act (DMA). The changes were several and they were first released to Insiders as Release Preview under KB5032288.

These included a clear demarcation of stock apps as "system" apps. The ability to uninstall Edge and Bing web search were also added. The sign-in experience was also modified. You can view the full set of changes in the announcement article.

The deadline for such DMA compliance was set to March 6 2024, and as the company published details about the changes it made in a blog post. It stated:

Quote
Microsoft did make changes to Windows to comply with other provisions of the DMA and is delivering these changes to Windows PCs in the EEA.

   • The Edge browser and the Bing web search functionality were redesigned so that users can
      uninstall these applications from Windows using the standard Windows mechanisms that
      are available for uninstallation if they choose to do so.

   • Microsoft has enabled and provided instructions for third-party web search applications to
      offer web search services through the search box on the Windows task bar and to rely on
      any browser of their choice to show a search results page in the same way as the Microsoft
      Bing web search application. Similarly, Windows enables and has provided information to
      developers on how to create third-party news feeds in the Windows Widgets panel in the
      same way as Microsoft Edge.

   • Microsoft also modified the sign-in experience on Windows. Prior to the DMA, Windows
      automatically signed users into other Microsoft products and services that combined data,
      including into Edge, Bing, and the Microsoft “Start” service (e.g. news, weather, etc.) when
      users are first signed into Windows. Windows will no longer automatically sign users into
      these services.

To help users understand the changes in a simplified way, Microsoft also published a graphic that you can view below:



The blog post also details other changes Microsoft had to make including on LinkedIn. You can find the official post on this page on Microsoft's website.

Update: Microsoft has also quietly confirmed the ability to uninstall OneDrive on Windows 11.

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Huawei / China Just Weaponized The Smartphone To Beat Apple And Google
« Last post by javajolt on March 10, 2024, 07:46:38 PM »
While Apple’s early 2024 China sales numbers have grabbed headlines, there’s a much more serious threat that was also quietly confirmed this week. And this is a real problem for Google and Apple and could fundamentally change the smartphone market over the next few years.


2024—the year of the dragon will be huge for the smartphone industry GETTY
Apple’s continued travails in China made headlines this week, with Counterpoint reporting sales down 24% inside the first six weeks of the year. But that’s not the only interesting news this week—it’s the twist behind that tale which could be a more serious issue for Apple and its iPhone longer term, and which spells a major shift in Google’s influence over 2/3 of the world’s smartphones.

Despite China’s Vivo now leading the pack, toppling Apple from top spot, the real winner is Huawei, whose sales soared 64%, putting it into second spot ahead of Apple. Even those stats ignore that Honor—the Huawei spinoff prompted by US sanctions—is broadly on par with Apple. Add Huawei and Honor together, and you would be back to the kind of dominance we saw pre-Trump.

This Huawei resurgence is independent of the US tech that drove its smartphone growth last time around. Huawei’s initial recipe was to broadly replicate iPhone/Samsung device performance at a lower price point, and then run Android and its apps and services ecosystem to level the user experience. The US ban first removed Android and then the chipsets making all this work.

Now Huawei is back with a seemingly independent supply chain and a new OS and ecosystem that is about to fully free itself from the Android world from which it was spawned. Nothing happens by accident in China. The domestic independence learning lessons from 2019-2021 is well planned. And what happens next will be just as well programmed.

I warned in 2019 that “the prize for Huawei over the next decade if it can build out a successful HarmonyOS ecosystem is huge. Not only does this deliver independence, but it also puts Huawei in control of the ‘third way’, the first major shake-up of the smartphone ecosystem in more than a decade. All of which would be bad news for Washington and California.”

Five-years later, and here we are. The pace of Huawei’s independent resurgence has surprised analysts. The Chinese giant has announced plans to split from Android with HarmonyOS Next. And even Nvidia has said that Huawei’s chipsets now make it a serious competitor in the AI space.

The crux of my warning five-years ago was as much—if not more about China—than just Huawei. The irony was that Huawei—just as TikTok has been doing since—was putting all its efforts into escaping China’s gravitational pull to be as western as it could, to compete on a par with the US giants.

The risk for the cozy smartphone world dominated by Apple’s walled garden and Google’s Android ecosystem was always that a third-way, born in the world’s largest smartphone market and corralling consumers, developers and OEMs, would shake apart the duopoly. Again—here we are.

The perhaps even more interesting news this week is that Shenzhen, the city at the heart of China’s high-tech industry—including Huawei, is stepping into the fray.

As reported by the South China Morning Post, Shenzhen “plans to expedite the adoption of [Huawei’s] self-developed mobile operating system HarmonyOS, heating up the platform’s rivalry with Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS in the world’s largest smartphone market.”

Not only does Shenzhen plan to “boost the number of its native apps built on HarmonyOS and push for their adoption across several major sectors,” the city’s 2024 Action Plan, published last weekend, mandates that “HarmonyOS-based apps will be adopted in sectors that include government services, education, healthcare, banking and finance, transport and welfare.”

Back in 2019, I suggested that “if Huawei takes a broad view, playing licensor rather that product owner, then it will pull other device manufacturers into the mix—starting with its Chinese stablemates,” and a few months later that “if Huawei can coral Chinese (and maybe non-Chinese) smartphone makers to jump from Android to its own operating system and app store, it will be a massive achievement. It will also be a serious threat to Google’s lock on the Android market.”

This pilot will be an interesting test case to see how independently China can run. Take Apple out the equation, and with Samsung nowhere to be seen the OEM market is all domestic. Add the alternative ecosystem and OS and suddenly you have that third-way.

Right now, this is just a domestic China issue, which has hit Apple hard given its exposure to that market. This doesn’t have any short-term implications much beyond that. But in China, it is starting to look much more realistic now than it seemed back in 2019/20, when Huawei was on the back foot and HarmonyOS was seen as a desperate move for survival.

It’s easy to see how Shenzhen’s move could expand across more of China—the country would like nothing more than breaking apart US dominance of the smartphone space and promoting its own solutions. Just look at its approach to telecoms network equipment procurements. But as to whether non-Chinese vendors would ever play—that’s a much more difficult question.

But there we have the next potential twist in this ongoing saga—AI. Google is pushing its as hard as it can across its mobile services and applications. Samsung—Android’s leading global OEM—has put Galaxy AI at the heart of its strategy. And Apple has teased that this fall’s iOS 18 will be all about AI.

On-device AI mandates expensive hardware. And this will play right into the hands of the Chinese OEMs, whose playbook has always been more device for less money. That’s how Huawei built its pre-sanctions international growth, and it’s how Xiaomi is doing the same now. Forget North America and Western Europe, look instead to the rest of Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, ask about the pull of a low-cost, AI device in those markets powered by an end-to-end Chinese ecosystem.

AI could be the leveler China needs for its next wave of international growth. And there again, the news that has slowly been building all plays to a theme. Huawei’s ecosystem includes hardware, chipsets, devices, an operating system and the AI that underpins the lot. Chinese OEMs are racing to match international advances in generative on-device AI. It all comes together.

At this stage, this is largely speculation—but at least for the Chinese market, it’s entirely predictable. We are exactly where I suggested we would be. China finding a third-way smartphone ecosystem, and then looking at how to promote its growth across its vast domestic market and then further afield.

Which brings us back to Apple. The US giant has always been heavily exposed to China, which has driven those recent sales headlines and pressure on its stock price and future sales forecasts. The issue isn't an iPhone 15 or iPhone 16 one. It’s much bigger than that.

Huawei is back with all that entails—bad news for Washington and California indeed. Could it be that November’s US election will see a rematch, a full return to those battles of the past, and if so, what cards are left to play that weren’t tabled last time around. We’ll have to wait and see...

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