Europe Gives Apple a Chance to Change ⇥ sixcolors.com

Dan Moren, Six Colors:

That’s where optics comes into play. Apple’s not publishing a 1500-word piece about why it disagrees with the EC’s ruling in order to convince the EC to change its mind. Presumably it made all of these arguments in its discussions with the regulator, and if it did not, then its army of lawyers is not doing its job.

No, this piece is for the public and the press (who will relay said arguments to the broad swath of the public that hasn’t consumed them firsthand). It’s there to point out all the great things that Apple does and cast it as the one being targeted unfairly by Europe. Apple’s just here making the world a better place! Fundamentally, Apple wants you to be party to its point of view here: that it’s the one being taken advantage of.

But that argument falls a bit flat when you boil the argument down to its essence.

It is still bizarre to read that press release even keeping in mind a presumed audience of journalists who might neutrally relay a few quotes and link to it. Surely someone at Apple knew what they were doing when they approved this thing; I do not run communications at a multitrillion-dollar company so this strategy is clearly lost on me.