Europe’s recent regulatory footprint is hurting Apple and its habits. The breakthrough on the single connector has forced Apple to give up one of the few remaining hardware “pillars” in the range, and this year we will thus switch from the much loved Lightning to USB-C not by choice but by obligation, to continue selling iPhones in the Old Continent. Now the entry into force of the DSA forces Cupertino to reveal the number of active users each month on the App Store in the operating systems and platforms it serves.
Also in this case, in all likelihood if there hadn’t been a precise regulatory obligation, that of the law on digital services, Apple would never have disclosed the data that it had always kept to itself over the many years. But the obligation exists, so we finally have official data that allow us to give a numerical dimension to the diffusion of the service of the services, i.e. the App Store. here are the Official numbers on active users in Europe on the App Store by platform:
- iOS: 101 million
- iPadOS: 23 million
- macOS: 6 million
- tvOS: 1 million
- watchOS: <1 million
Additionally, Apple has less than a million active (paying) subscriptions to both Books and Podcasts. The numbers are the result of a monthly average during the semester that ended last January. The European Digital Services Act (DSA) establishes the rules that very large digital platforms must comply with, but very big means everything and nothing, so Europe has established that fall within the scope of the DSA those with a number of active users exceeding 45 million.
Apple considers the App Stores for the various platforms to be separate entities, so ultimately the only one that is technically subject to the constraints of the DSA is the App Store for iPhone but not for example the one for iPadOS, although in some ways they are the same environment. However Apple has said that although technically it is not obligated then “on an entirely voluntary basis”will subject all App Stores to the constraints of the DSA since “the goals of the DSA coincide with those of Apple on the protection of consumers against illegal content”.
