Telcos must challenge Apple and Google’s stranglehold on mobile ecosystem

The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a probe into what it says is the “vice-like grip” Apple and Google have over the mobile ecosystem. Business technology journalist, Antony Savvas says telcos and their partners should step up to the plate and use wider regulatory pressure on “big tech” to take back some power in the communication services market.

The CMA is considering effects and remedies to a problem we are all aware of. The mobile operating systems of Apple iOS and Google Android, and their App Store and Play Store mobile shop fronts, have far too much power and control over who is able to sell services to mobile users.

Digital transformation

With 5G promoted by governments as a way to aid the digital transformation of their countries, it’s about time they put in place more open rules as to how their citizens can access and enjoy the apps and services that will come as part of that transformation.

At the moment, consumers and business users have no real choice as to how such systems and content are delivered. It’s a gate opened or shut by either Apple or Google, even though it’s not them who have built and paid for the mobile networks that carry the content they strictly control and profit from.

Microsoft crushed

The usually mighty Microsoft saw its mobile Windows OS crushed by these two, along with a fledgling app store, and the BlackBerry OS finally became terminal after the last couple of BlackBerry-licensed phones adopted the Android OS.

More recently, Huawei launched its HarmonyOS, which is a re-jigged version of the open-source Android OS. That was in response to being denied access to Google and other US-owned native apps on its smartphones, as part of the continuing trade war between the US and China.

HarmonyOS also includes Huawei’s own App Gallery app store, but as Huawei phone sales have slumped globally since being put on the US technology blacklist, HarmonyOS is not going to seriously challenge either Apple or Google.

Big two feast

The big two have been allowed to feast from an increasingly lucrative apps and services empire, with just a few crumbs falling for everyone else.

As the CMA says, “Apple and Google are able to control how content is provided to users. They can also tilt the playing field towards their own services. Apple, for instance, does not allow any other app store than its own on iPhones and iPads.”

The CMA is “concerned” this is leading to “less competition and meaningful choice for customers”. It adds consumers could be facing higher prices than they would do in a “more competitive market”, for app subscriptions and purchases made within apps.

Vice-like grip

Driving the point home, Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA, says: “Apple and Google have developed a vice-like grip over how we use mobile phones and we’re concerned that it’s causing millions of people to lose out.”

The pair could certainly be facing some action, particularly as the CMA has said it is waiting to be equipped with stronger enforcement powers promised by the government, before confirming its remedies to the market problems.

Telco pressure

Telcos operating in the UK should not only take part in the CMA’s consultation on its initial findings, but also put pressure on other national governments across the world to open up investigations on the closed mobile ecosystem. They should say their national economies and digital transformation will suffer if they don’t act.

One should also bear in mind that the European Union is already moving forward with its Digital Markets Act, which is a self-proclaimed attempt to curtail the overall market power of companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple. It includes tackling the way they use their established platforms, operating systems and services to freeze out competitors and start-ups.

It dovetails nicely with what the CMA is looking at and what many more governments should be considering.

Lobbying template

A template for telco lobbying action could include solutions already suggested by the CMA. These are that users should be able to switch between iOS and Android phones when they want to replace their device, without losing functionality or data; and making it easier to install apps through methods other than the App Store or Play Store, including so-called “web apps”.

Web apps are accessed via the internet browser, and will adapt to whichever device you’re viewing them on. They are not native to a particular system and don’t need to be downloaded or installed, as they are hosted on a cloud server.

In addition to the above remedies, enabling all apps to give users a choice of how they pay in-app for things like game credits or subscriptions, rather than being tied to Apple’s and Google’s payment systems, is also seen as a positive move; as is making it simpler to choose default alternatives to Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome browsers, which are usually pre-loaded on devices along with their app stores.

Last chance saloon

The CMA is encouraging responses to its initial findings by 7th February, 2022, and expects to issue a final report in June 2022. This, and the EU move, along with potentially other government investigations, could be the last chance telcos have in gaining more control of new revenue streams for many years to come.

IoT blockchain

A number of tech players, who are not part of big tech, are developing a blockchain-based system that will make it easier for Internet of Things (IoT) devices to easily stay connected with people and businesses.

Researchers and scientists from Lockheed Martin, Ericsson, Lenovo, Huawei, Bosch, IoTeX and the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology are developing global standards for blockchain-based decentralised identities, under the direction of the IEEE Identity of Things Working Group.

The working group is defining a global DID (decentralised identity) standard for humans and machines to interoperate, to ensure the “full $12.6 trillion (€11.2 trillion) potential value of the IoT, that

McKinsey predicts by 2030, can be unlocked globally”, said the group.

The Identity of Things standard being worked on defines a decentralised identity and access management (IAM) framework for the IoT to manage the lifecycle of IoT devices, as well as IoT security services, such as device authentication, data authorisation and access controls.

Like Wi-Fi

Antony Savvas

The interoperability being talked about here is likened to the Wi-Fi global standard, which the IEEE also set. Thanks to that, people can travel anywhere worldwide and connect to the internet with only their username and password.

The new standard will make it possible for billions of machines worldwide to communicate, no matter who manufactured them or where. People will be able to connect IoT devices and machines to a blockchain with DIDs, without compromising privacy or handing control of data and smart devices to big tech.

Hopefully, another way the power of the Apples and Googles of the world can be reduced.

The author is Antony Savvas, a global freelance business technology journalist.

Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @VanillaPlus OR @jcvplus

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