Ben Wood

But I would argue that the iPhone in someone's hand that they've paid a lot of their hard-earned cash for, if consumers start to figure out that they feel as though their politicians are neutering their devices, they're going to be very aggrieved.

Yeah, and look, we don't know what those conversations are.

I don't understand those nuances.

But the very fact that that kind of came up in conversation and there was that focus on that granularity of the detail of where the block was coming from, I think speaks volumes.

Apple is very adept at diplomacy.

Tim Cook, obviously his era is coming to an end.

But I think if you were reflecting on what he's delivered as a leader, one of the great things that he's done has been this incredible ability to engage with politicians and governments alike.

right around the world, you know, China, EU, here in the US, where there's, you know, a lot of challenges as well.

He's been amazing at that.

So, you know, they will have teams lobbying and pushing on this, but they've decided to call it out.

And in diplomacy, that's quite a nuclear option sometimes.

So, I think this is really a big deal.

And I think we can only speculate and wonder about it, but I think you just have to hope that the politicians will rise above that.

And, you know, in this case, those politics are nothing to do with Apple.

You know, it is an impasse.

It's of concern.

But, you know, let's face it, a lot of the AI agenda in particular is being dominated, wholesale dominated by U.S.

at the same time it's there you know i i think we're probably into territory that's above my pay grade now but i i can understand and i think you know let's face it i think this is what's so divisive about this discussion now because it's now throwing up this kind of speculation and yeah that's not helpful to either side in this situation so i guess what we have to hope is that

this little to and fro, you know, this impasse that they've reached, which is now kind of spilled over into the public domain, might help get everyone around the table again, and we'll move things forward.

But I think if I was the European Commission, or I was part of the European Union and a politician looking at this, I think I would be a little bit nervous.