Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed that ChatGPT technology will be integrated into iPhone devices before the end of 2024 with the operating system update to iOS 18, aiming to improve Siri's performance.

"The rollout has started with developers this week. We've started with some Apple Intelligence features and other features, such as languages beyond U.S. English, coming later this year. ChatGPT will be integrated by the end of the year," he added. While ChatGPT will be available on iOS 18 devices in the U.S. before the end of 2024, roll out to other languages and regions will occur incrementally throughout 2025.

The new Apple Intelligence features will be launched gradually, all available after the first quarter of 2025. It should be noted that the company has already started to implement some of these features with the first test versions of iOS 18.1, but not all of them are available yet.

It is essential to understand that the company confirmed that only iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max phones can process all these functions, so all previous devices will be relegated. The integration of ChatGPT on iOS devices promises a number of innovations and improvements in iPhone interaction. Being natively integrated, Siri will be able to fall back on ChatGPT whenever it cannot perform an action requested by the user.

Meanwhile... Apple is also pushing to develop its own AI, Apple Intelligence

Apple has already presented its long-awaited commitment to artificial intelligence. The company's managers wanted to make the popular acronym AI. They have used it to give their name to this family of options: Apple Intelligence.

This AI system does not collect your personal data, which is something Apple says is achieved through software and hardware integration. Generative AI models require a lot of computing power, and according to Apple, the chips in the latest iPad, iPhone, and Mac (no Apple Watch or AirPods, it seems, for now) are capable of delivering such power.

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The European Commission (EC) informed this Thursday that it considers as good the concessions offered by Apple to open to its rivals the NFC wireless technology to which it limits the possibilities of the contactless payment 'Tap to Pay' of its iPhone phones -which in practice restricted competition in favor of its Apple Pay service-, binding commitments that Apple must comply with for ten years to avoid a millionaire fine from Brussels for abuse of dominant position.

Ultimately, this means that iPhone users will be able to use other payment apps in addition to Apple Pay, thus enabling third-party payment options.

"It's safe and convenient to pay with your phone. It opens up competition in this crucial sector by preventing Apple from excluding other mobile wallets from the iPhone ecosystem. From now on, competitors will be able to effectively compete with Apple Pay for mobile payments with the iPhone in stores. Consumers will, therefore, have a wider range of secure and innovative mobile wallets to choose from," defended Margrethe Vestager, the EU executive vice president in charge of competition.

The case dates back to 2020, when the EC began investigating the technology company's practices, although it was not until May 2022 that it took the step of formally accusing Apple of preventing developers of contactless payment apps from accessing the standard NFC wireless technology in the brand's devices, forcing users to opt for Apple Pay, the only mobile wallet that can access NFC hardware and software in iOS to make in-store payments, as Apple does not make it available to third-party mobile wallet developers.

In its investigation, the Commission made a preliminary finding that Apple had abused its dominant position by refusing to provide NFC input into iOS to its rivals, reserving such access only to Apple Pay. The Commission's preliminary view is that Apple's refusal foreclosed Apple Pay rivals from the market and resulted in less innovation and choice for iPhone mobile wallet users.

Apple must commit to implementing the HCE

In an attempt to address Brussels's concerns, the company headed by Tim Cook has committed to allowing other mobile payment operators to access its NFC system on iOS devices at no additional charge. Apple will also have to give third parties access to the HCE (host card emulation) system, which allows payment credentials to be stored securely.

 It will allow users to set an HCE payment app as the default and use features such as Field Detect (which opens the default payment app), double-click (which opens the default payment app by double-clicking the phone's side or home button), and authentication tools such as Touch ID, Face ID, and the device passcode.

Moreover, Apple should apply objective, transparent, and non-discriminatory criteria to allow third-party operators to access the NFC payment system. Apple must establish a monitoring mechanism and an independent dispute resolution system that allows for review of Apple's decisions restricting access. 

These commitments should apply to all third-party mobile app developers in the EU, also when they temporarily travel outside the EU area.

In addition, after consultation with third parties involved in the market, Apple has made a number of additional commitments, such as extending the possibility to initiate payments with HCE apps on other industry-certified handsets or explicitly recognizing that HCE developers are not prevented from combining the HCE payment feature with other NFC functionalities or use cases. It will also remove the requirement for developers to have a payment service provider ("PSP") license or a binding agreement with a PSP to access NFC input and allow developers to access NFC technology to pre-build payment applications for third parties

Apple will update the HCE architecture to align with evolving industry standards used by Apple Pay and will allow developers to require users to configure their default payment application easily. It must also comply with industry specifications for HCE payment app developers and protect sensitive information obtained during an audit. 

The U.S. company must shorten dispute resolution times and provide guarantees of independence in the oversight procedure. These changes must be in place by July 25.

Suppose Apple does not comply with these commitments. In that case, the Commission may impose a fine of up to 10% of its total turnover, without having to find a breach of EU antitrust rules, or a periodic penalty payment of 5% of its daily turnover for each day of non-compliance.

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The European Union has fined Apple over 1.8 billion euros for abusing its dominant position in the market for distributing streaming music apps to iPhone and iPad users through its App Store.

The investigation by the European Commission found that Apple applied restrictions on app developers that prevented them from informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside the app.

The sanction is linked to a complaint filed by Spotify in 2019, in which they pointed out that Apple's App Store rules were deliberately limiting choice and inhibiting innovation, affecting the user experience. It also accused Apple, maker of the iPhone, of acting to the detriment of other app developers by playing a dual role as both participant and judge in the app store ecosystem.

Apple’s app monopoly 

In June 2020 , the Commission opened a formal proceeding on Apple's rules for app developers on the distribution of apps through the App Store. In April 2021 , the Commission sent Apple a Statement of Objections, to which Apple responded in September 2021.

In February 2023, the Commission replaced the 2021 Statement of Objections with another Statement of Objections clarifying the Commission's objections, to which Apple responded in May 2023.

As a result, Apple faces a payout of approximately €40 million for failing to comply with EU regulations, in addition to another €1.8 billion intended to compensate for the harm caused to consumers due to its policies. This amount represents about 0.5% of Apple's total reported revenue in 2023. It is estimated that the fine could have been as high as 10% of that figure, the maximum limit set by the Commission for this type of punitive measure.

"Apple's conduct, which lasted nearly ten years, may have led many iOS users to pay significantly higher prices for streaming music subscriptions due to the high commission imposed by Apple on developers and passed on to consumers in the form of higher subscription prices for the same service on Apple's App Store" they state in the release.

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As reported by Bloomberg, Apple is building a ChatGPT-style chatbot, which is called AppleGPT. Technology development has sometimes stalled due to the company's security concerns.

Currently, the chatbot is available to certain company employees, requiring authorization for use, who use it to create product prototypes. On the other hand, it summarizes texts and answers questions based on the data with which it has been trained. There still needs to be a defined strategy for making this technology available to consumers.

Apple's goal is to find a way in which the public can find utility in the project, not just to provide what ChatGPT and Bard already offer. In principle, the company will not offer any of these new tool until at least next year.

ChatGPT will arrive on Android next week

A few months ago, tired of copycats, OpenAI launched its official ChatGPT app on the iPhone. It was an applauded launch since, after months of being able to access the web version, users were eager to have a ChatGPT app, and some developers took advantage by launching fraudulent applications. This was a problem, as many had malware.

However, after the iPhone launch, the company confirmed they were working on an Android version of ChatGPT, but did not give an estimated date beyond a "coming soon." Now, the wait is over, and we'll have the official app next week. And you can sign up now.

GPT-4 integration with Android 

2023 has been crazy when it comes to artificial intelligence implementation. OpenAI attracted a lot of attention last year. Still, it was Microsoft with its Bing search engine with integrated GPT-4 that allowed Android users easy access to the system.

Google wasted no time and, after a somewhat controversial launch, at Google I/O they presented their new language model and the integration of their AI, Bard, with many systems. Moreover, although it took a while, Bard is already available in Europe, and it was clear that ChatGPT was just now catching up.

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The Spanish National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) has fined a total of 194.15 million euros to Amazon and Apple for agreeing to and implementing certain restrictions towards their competition in the Amazon marketplace in Spain that affect third-party resellers of Apple products and competing products of the Apple firm.

Specifically, the fine imposed on Apple's companies amounts to 143.64 million and the fine imposed on Amazon is 50.51 million. As reported by the regulator in a statement, both companies agreed to include a series of clauses in the contracts that regulate the conditions of Amazon as an Apple distributor that affected the sale of Apple products and other brands on the Amazon website in Spain. 

On the one hand, they "unjustifiably" restricted the number of resellers of Apple products on Amazon's website in Spain, and, on the other hand, they limited the advertising space where competing Apple products can be advertised on Amazon's website in Spain, the CNMC has detailed. Finally, they limited the possibility for Amazon to direct marketing campaigns to customers of Apple products on its website in Spain to offer them competing products from other brands.

Amazon and Apple alliance to destroy competition 

According to the Spanish competition regulator organization, on October 31, 2018 Amazon and Apple signed two contracts updating Amazon's conditions as an authorized Apple distributor. 

These included several "competition-restrictive clauses" that affected the online retail sale of electronic products in Spain, given that only a number of Apple-appointed resellers could sell Apple-branded products on Amazon's website in Spain.

This resulted in around 90% of resellers using Amazon's website in Spain to retail Apple products being excluded from the country's main online marketplace. 

It also implied, according to the findings of the CNMC investigation, that sellers not authorized by Apple to market their products on Amazon's website in Spain lost an "important sales channel" given that the platform channels "most of the online purchases" of electronic products at a national level. 

In addition, it meant that sales of Apple products in the marketplace were concentrated in Amazon itself, "drastically reducing competition among resellers of this brand's products".

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Meta wants to challenge Goole and Apple app stores now that the EU recently approved the Digital Markets Act, which is expected to come into force next spring. This new regulation will allow all platforms to distribute apps through other digital stores.

According to The Verge, Meta plans to allow people in the European Union to download apps directly through Facebook Ads. So this will mean an opportunity to compete with Google and Apple's app stores. The idea is to allow users to discover and download apps from Facebook instead of having to open the App Store on iOS. This would open up a new market for Meta.

Meta promises to host apps and give users the option to download them without intermediaries, and this - Meta claims - will achieve better conversion rates for their ads. In addition, at least for now, Meta will not charge a percentage of the revenue those apps get.

A Meta spokesperson, Tom Channick, confirmed this project in an email to The Verge: "We've always been interested in helping developers distribute their apps, and the new options would add more competition in this space. Developers deserve more ways to get their apps to the people who want them easily." 

In any case, Meta was not the only company interested in taking advantage of the new situation when the EU DMA comes into force. In March, Microsoft also announced that it expects to launch its alternative app store for iOS and Android games in Europe next year.

Meta is not so sure about the Metaverse anymore… 

Meanwhile, Zuckerberg assured that the metaverse remains an essential vision for Meta's future but that it will not be its main investment focus. That means it is no longer the priority. 

The metaverse is an idea popularized in science fiction that refers to a digital space where people can create and explore virtual worlds with avatars. In fact, Meta changed its name in 2021 to reflect its interest in this concept but now seems to have lost some of its enthusiasm.

Meta's change comes against a backdrop of high competition in the AI field, where other companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are developing innovative and disruptive technologies. AI is one of the most important trends of the 21st century and can potentially transform many sectors and aspects of human life. That's why Meta wants to be at the forefront and not be left behind.

According to Andrew Bosworth, Meta's CTO, Zuckerberg is now obsessed with generative artificial intelligence (AI), a technology that can create new and personalized content from data. Meta is heavily invested in AI research and development and has a language model called LLaMa that is rumored to be very powerful. Apparently, Zuckerberg has attention deficits and quickly shifts interest when a shiny new toy comes along.

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Apple got a €728 million reduction in the landmark €1.1 billion fine the company received in 2020 on charges of entering into anti-competitive agreements with two distributors, in France.

According to the Reuters news agency, the Paris appeals court has agreed to reduce Apple's total fine to €371.6 million. The antitrust agency, the Competition Authority (CA), has indicated that it is considering appealing the ruling to France's Supreme Court.

Apple’s anticompetitive behavior 

The original fine was imposed by the French antitrust agency in 2020 for anticompetitive behavior by Apple towards its distribution and retail network.

At the time, it was the largest fine imposed by the antitrust regulator. The French agency did not only fine Apple. Some of its business partners such as Apple Tech Data and Ingram Micro were also fined €76 million and €63 million respectively, for price fixing that is contrary to French competition law.

Last year, at a hearing in the appeal case, Apple accused French regulators of twisting antitrust rules "for political objectives."

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Apple had already taken these lesser results into account. After all, they already issued a profit warning for the fourth quarter due to disappointing iPhone sales. CEO Tim Cook talks about a strong quarter for wearables and accessories. However, the service branch has apparently broken an absolute record.

Since this year, the mobile phone supplier is no longer reporting sold quantities of its iPhones, iPads and Macs. However, some analysts estimate that the company shipped 42 million of these items in the last quarter. This would mean a 19.6% decrease in comparison to last year.

Apple lost its place to Huawei

According to IDC, the company who published the below stated Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Apple has once again lost its place in the world ranking of smartphone sales to Huawei. Huawei is number two in the ranking, after Samsung. In total, smartphone manufacturers shipped 310 million copies in the first quarter. Apple's smartphone sales are said to have decreased by around 30%. For the next quarter, the company expects a turnover of between $52.5 and 54.5 billion.

Intel

There are rumours that Apple wants to buy the modem branch of Intel now that this company wants to stop building chips that bring modem functionality to mobile devices. That decision followed after the smartphone company concluded a mega-deal with chip maker Qualcomm. For now, Intel denies that there is a relationship. However, Apple is not the only company interested in purchasing Intel. Samsung, Broadcom, ON Semiconductor and Unisoc Communications are looking into purchasing the Intel component.

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Spotify VS. Apple Music

Due to their free version, Spotify will likely be able to top Apple Music in overall users (both in the US and worldwide). Spotify already has far more international subscribers and active users worldwide than Apple Music. This is probably caused by Spotify's free, ad-supported tier. In the last quarter of 2018, Spotify reported 207 million active users worldwide, 96 million of which are paid subscriptions.

Meanwhile, Apple Music, which doesn't offer an ad-supported option, only has about 50 million subscribers worldwide. Spotify's free tier is likely key to converting users abroad. It provides an indefinite and low-risk way for users to test the app's interface and features before financially committing. Apple's chief advantage is its addressable base of iPhone users for whom the Apple Music app is pre-installed. Apple estimates there to be 101 million active iPhones in the US and nearly one billion worldwide. Apple may not offer a free version but they do offer a free three-month trial. The app is pre-installed on iPhones, which reduces friction and encourages sign-ups. Apple may also stand to lure more subscribers to its service through features like lyric-based song search and exclusive content launches.

Apple's Focus

Apple has been focused on increasing its services revenue as iPhone sales are not as promising as they once were. iPhone sales were 15% lower in 2018 than in 2017, while Services revenue (including Apple Music) increased by 87% to $37.2 billion in the same year.

Apple could bundle together some of its services like Apple Music, Apple News+, Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade to boost its recurring revenue and drive sales. Given Apple's approach with other services — which are largely subscription-based — it is unlikely that Apple will create an ad-supported option for its Music app. A services bundle, on the other hand, seems logical.

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This means Leapp will no longer be active in Germany after the restart. The new owners say they are looking for a possible continuation of the Belgian activities. The refurbished Apple seller aims to reopen its branches and webshop in the last week of July. The stores in Almere, Apeldoorn and Tilburg remain permanently closed. Fourteen other shops will open again and therefore the jobs of about a hundred employees have been secured.

Nobel Capital Partners has confidence in a healthy future for Leapp, says partner Pieter Schroeder. He points to the rapid development that the refurbished Apple vendor went through after its foundation in 2011. Leapp quickly became market leader in refurbished Apple equipment. After the restart, the company will focus on its core activities in the Netherlands as an omnichannel retailer, creating a solid basis for renewed growth, according to Pieter Schroeder.

Van Camp will continue to be associated with Leapp as a co-owner. He is pleased with the restart with Nobel as majority shareholder. With the increased name recognition of Leapp, consumer interest in recycled laptops, telephones and tablets has grown, he says. "Circularity remains an important core value after the restart and Leapp continues to strive to increase its market share for refurbished Apple equipment."

Leapp was forced to apply for bankruptcy last month after talks about a new financing came to nothing. The retailer had 24 branches in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany at the time of the bankruptcy, 14 of those branches will reopen at the end of July.

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