Speculating on the Prospects of the ‘Open App Markets Act’ Becoming Law

Philip Elmer-DeWitt, quoting from a note from analyst Amit Daryanani:

Relay from Tobin Marcus, EVRISI Senior US Policy and Politics Strategist, on the bill: “I think this’ll be a big topic of discussion through Q1 and has a chance of getting done, but it still looks fairly unlikely. The 16-6 committee vote overstates the level of support for the bill. Some Democrats, including the 2 Senators from California, voted the bill out of committee in part as a courtesy to Klobuchar despite expressing significant reservations, and several other Democrats have concerns and changes they want to make. Some of the Republican support looks soft as well, and getting Senate floor time for this bill before Congress largely shuts down for the midterms will be harder than some commentators appreciate.”

In the “all politics is local” front, it strikes me as highly unlikely that either senator from California (Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla) are going to vote for a bill that specifically targets Apple and Google. But in a larger sense, the United States Senate has more important matters to address than trying to force Apple to allow sideloading on iPhones.

★ Friday, 21 January 2022