India’s Security Plan Could Hurt iPhone User Experience
It felt like a few hours longer than usual since the last India-related Apple article, but that’s not a bit of good news as India appears to want smartphone OS makers to separate apps from the operating system. maybe.
India Wants Separation of Key Services
Reuters reports that India’s IT ministry is considering new rules as part of an attempt to protect smartphone makers from spying and misusing user data.
The report suggests that Apple, Samsung and other smartphone makers have already held closed-door meetings with Indian lawmakers on these proposals. It is not clear if these rules will be implemented, but India plans to notify manufacturers one year in advance of their implementation, according to reports.
“Pre-installed apps can be a security weakness and we want to prevent foreign countries, including China, from exploiting them. are doing. Relations between China and India have been strained since a 2020 border skirmish between her two nuclear-armed states.
Uninstall everything?
What the proposal means is that smartphone makers should offer uninstall options for bundled apps.
When it comes to Apple, this is thought to extend to core apps like Photos and Safari.
Manufacturers are also required to submit new devices for security testing by the Indian Bureau of Standards and get software updates tested by the same agency. Testing can take up to 21 weeks, significantly delaying product launch.
Manufacturers correctly point out that some of these apps are integral to the mobile experience, such as the camera app, and hope to persuade the government to agree to this difference.
Threats to digital supply chains
But what worries me most about these proposals is the extent to which they threaten the digital supply chain. At the end of the day, it sounds fine to take positive steps to protect the OS ecosystem, but the challenge in doing so is that one country’s OS behaves very differently than its neighbor. to get into a situation.
State-mandated incompatibilities are also looming, which could be seen as a threat to the standards that bind the entire digital ecosystem together.
After all, if you think about Apple’s Calendar app, it’s ostensibly an app like any other, but the operating system has already done so to make it available to other apps on those systems. It is also an expression of the work you are doing. At what point would that system-level work be affected by these suggestions? It also makes a lot of sense to force manufacturers to separate background tasks from the user interface. Users can already select another calendar app.
Will it affect Made In India?
Another concern is the possible 21-week delay in shipping the product.
Given that Apple intends to ramp up iPhone production in India, this could wreak havoc on production schedules and confidentiality. Apple does not want this delay in launching new products as it prepares to launch new products in India.
Cool minds win and manufacturers point out that if these rules are not fine-tuned, they could threaten the Made in India strategy the country has already spent so much cash on to foster. I believe that we must expect that this will be a success.
We’ll see how it goes, but obviously doing business in India means manufacturers have to expect some surprises along the way.
Follow me on Mastodon or join AppleHolic’s Bar & Grill. apple discussion MeWe’s group.
Dear Reader, This is to let you know that as an Amazon Associate, you earn income from eligible purchases.
