#288—It’s time to open up walled gardens

Also, a new documentary on the global identity crisis

Mar 25, 2024

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This week:

It’s time to open up walled gardens
What we’re watching: Shadows in the Dark - Our Global Identity Crisis
This week in tokenization
Stuff happens

1. It’s time to open up walled gardens

It’s officially peak Apple. iPhone sales have been flat for years. Their car project didn’t work out. The generative AI boat passed them by. And while the Vision Pro is an incredibly cool piece of tech, it’s unclear that it will move the needle for the company with the mainstream in the next few years.

Naturally, Apple is leaning into services for profit with its closed payment rails and closed app store, but it just so happens at a time when developers and regulators are finally starting to fight back.

A couple weeks ago, they were forced to reinstate Epic Games’ developer account by the European commission.

And just before that, they got hit with a $2 billion fine in its Spotify court case.

Now in the U.S., the Department of Justice has launched its own suit, claiming that Apple illegally monopolized the smartphone market. Here’s the AP:

The suit takes aim at how Apple allegedly molds its technology and business relationships to “extract more money from consumers, developers, content creators, artists, publishers, small businesses, and merchants, among others.”
That includes diminishing the functionality of non-Apple smartwatches, limiting access to contactless payment for third-party digital wallets and refusing to allow its iMessage app to exchange encrypted messaging with competing platforms.
It specifically seeks to stop Apple from undermining technologies that compete with its own apps -- in areas including streaming, messaging and digital payments -- and prevent it from continuing to craft contracts with developers, accessory makers and consumers that let it “obtain, maintain, extend or entrench a monopoly.”

In the history of computing and the internet, Apple’s ability to maintain its closed vertical integration of its ecosystem has always been the exception rather than the rule.

Over time, the market, and particularly the internet, always pushes for openness.

You can already see this playing out on the global scale, where Android is the clear market leader. Android’s market share surpassed 95 percent in India as recently as 2022. Apple’s remains in the single digits.

Relevant:

Australia’s Top Banker Renews Warning on Apple Payments

2. What we’re watching: Shadows in the Dark - Our Global Identity Crisis

Mariana Dahan and the World Identity Network have just released an epic new documentary on the global identity crisis that features our very own Greg Kidd.

Produced by an Emmy-award winning team, the film covers the many harrowing stories and tribulations of the more than one billion undocumented people around the world.

From the announcement:

World Identity Network (WIN), the leading nonprofit organization advocating for universal identity rights, has released its groundbreaking documentary, Shadows in the Dark: Our Global Identity Crisis, exclusively on Amazon.
"Releasing this film to the public is a moment of great triumph for our organization," says WIN Founder and CEO, Dr. Mariana Dahan. "We spent years interviewing undocumented persons and refugees. Telling their stories with the utmost care, precision, and nuance was a tremendous responsibility, and we could not be happier with the final result."
Shadows in the Dark is a sprawling saga following the stories of undocumented individuals across the United States, the Middle East, and refugee camps in Europe and beyond. The documentary shines a light on those born in the shadows of the formal economy, at the margins of society, lacking common identity documents, such as birth certificates and passports.

For Mariana, it’s also a story that hits close to home:

"In many ways, this film is a culmination of my life's work," continues Dr. Dahan. "Having been born without a birth certificate in Soviet-era Moldova, at the border with Ukraine, I know firsthand how crucial identity is to the preservation of human rights. I encourage everyone to watch the film and learn more about this global issue impacting millions. Identity is the cornerstone of human civilization".

Learn more about the movie, which is now playing on Amazon.

Yaka Stuff

#288—It’s time to open up walled gardens

Also, a new documentary on the global identity crisis

1. It’s time to open up walled gardens

2. What we’re watching: Shadows in the Dark - Our Global Identity Crisis

3. This week in tokenization

4. Stuff happens

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