Tech Tonic | Shouldn’t tech regulation be a proportionate, two-way street?

We are all familiar with Apple’s game of keeping the Apple Watch within the iPhone fold. That should change, and we can only hope some regulatory push helps open that door. Much like RCS or rich communication services support, finally arriving on iPhones with iOS 18 (the weak link ate the cellcos; worth noting that Airtel and Reliance Jio are yet to roll out network settings updates to enable RCS alongside voice and SMS). Nevertheless, the spark could perhaps be a recall of what Samsung’s Director of Global Product Planning, Junho Park said at the company’s Unpacked 2023 keynote around this time last year. Perhaps, as I said.

“The goal is, how can we provide the best experience to our customers? We found that some of the heavy limitations [users experienced when using a Galaxy Watch with iOS] were not driven by the Watch [itself], but by the core product. So, we thought, ‘Hey, there is still a lot of disconnection.’ That was one of the reasons we dropped (iOS support for Galaxy smartwatches). We could not deliver the same level of experience with Android and iOS,” he had said unveiling the Galaxy Watch 6 series (we had reviewed that too). What are the specific iOS limitations? The company hasn't elaborated.

We’ve since moved on to the 2024 Galaxy Watch 7 and the Galaxy Watch Ultra (very impressive, as I noted in the review) and that’s where I must make a few observations.

On the latest line of Galaxy smartwatches, Samsung has done enough to restrict key functionality to only be available when paired with their own Samsung Galaxy smartphones. Contextual coaching suggestions based on metrics such as quality of sleep, heart rate and snoring, are only available when paired with a Galaxy phone. It is the same for the blood pressure monitor too. As well as some smartwatch functionality including AI suggestions for message replies and the cool double pinch gesture to capture photos, answer phone calls and silence alarms.

I absolutely do not intend to make this an Apple vs Samsung debate, because it certainly isn’t. This is one illustration. It is a similar theme to the OnePlus watch line-up too, with certain features available only when a user pairs them with a OnePlus phone. And Google’s own Pixel Watch too, which also doesn’t have any support for the iPhone. Is it any surprise that in the Indian context, watch brands such as Xiaomi, Noise and Boat are finding success because they’ve found a way to make their smartwatches work equally well on the iPhone as well as Android phones? As have the likes of Garmin and Withings.

Xiaomi’s upcoming Redmi Watch 3 Active confirms it carries on that lineage of support for iPhones. The Withings ScanWatch Nova (it found a nice balance, as we note in our review) isn’t hampered when paired with an iPhone. They’ve found a way to play well within iOS, which clearly points to iOS and Apple not being the roadblocks as regulators (and rival brands) perceive them to be. If these brands can, perhaps so can Samsung, OnePlus, Google and the rest.

At this point, I’ll raise a very simple question—why not line up every tech company that makes smartwatches and audio wearables, for instance, and give them a collective dressing down to behave? Regulators should be asking similar questions from Google too, about Wear OS.

Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president in charge of the European Commission’s competition policy says this is “the first time we use specification proceedings under the DMA to guide Apple towards effective compliance with its interoperability obligations through constructive dialogue.” Who better than Apple to get the ball rolling?

Interesting to note here, Apple’s made a new AccessorySetupKit available to developers of third-party accessories, which will allow an iPhone or iPad running iOS 18 or iPadOS 18 to detect and set up devices much like how Apple’s own AirPods or AirTags are detected and configured. No need to dig deep into the Bluetooth settings to complete the handshake.

As it is with most things, two sides to every coin. I had earlier referenced how the EU regulations have forced Apple to entirely bypass rolling out the upcoming Apple Intelligence suite from the region—unless something changes significantly in the next couple of weeks. Meta too has refrained from releasing their new multimodal Llama 3.1 model in the EU. Purely because they don’t know which toes, they’ll step on, with regards to data sets for training these models, and availability that may be called restrictive or monopolistic.

We will all be waiting for the day when a proportionate conversation on this specific matter includes the biggies on the other side of the operating system spectrum. Until then, it looks akin to selective contempt. But the world can certainly dream about iPhone users enjoying a fully functional Samsung Galaxy Ultra smartwatch, and an Apple Watch that's absolutely useful with an Android phone.

Vishal Mathur is the technology editor for the Hindustan Times. Tech Tonic is a weekly column that looks at the impact of personal technology on the way we live, and vice-versa. The views expressed are personal.