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I know people like Tim Sweeney, Daniel Ek and David Heinemeier Hansson have been vocal about the current state of affairs and have seeked help from regulators to get antitrust laws passed. It did have some mild successes.
Maybe making an open standard would yield better results?
It's called the web.
Steam, for example, still dominates PC gaming despite the Epic Game Store, the Microsoft Store, GOG, etc. Conversely, I still don't trust most of the apps on the Google Play Store. And the macOS desktop app marketplace is such a mess, and I wish were more apps were just available on the official Apple app store instead of requiring some third-party purchase pathway (and usually delivered with a DMG image or some Homebrew cask, with no verification or developer signing at all).
Even if Apple allowed third-party app stores, I wouldn't want to install them (nor handle billing through Epic instead of Apple, especially now that Epic is half owned by Tencent).
The peace of mind of having to trust just one marketplace, and also the convenience of being able to easily sync my purchases, save files, etc. across multiple devices using a single login is way more important.
It's not just the technical limitations, but also that some people just don't actually want the wild west when it comes to their computing devices...
I've had good results with a PWA that - with the same code and content - runs on the MS Edge browser (desktop) and on Android Chrome and Samsung web browsers(mobile). Haven't tried on IOS.
No play stores involved, though, if you want, play stores do accept PWAs.
PWAs may not be the answer to everything but I believe they're a start.
Decentralized repos, subscription feeds, key signing, etc.
What if it's just not the kind of thing normal people actually care about? I know that's a taboo thought here on HN, but a well-maintained walled garden is often just a lot nicer for users than too much freedom. Steam, for example, still dominates PC gaming despite the Epic Game Store, the Microsoft Store, GOG, etc. Conversely, I still don't trust most of the apps on the Google Play Store. And the macOS desktop app m…
Sorry what exactly is an Open Standard for App Distribution. Are you suggesting an Open App Store? If so who is running the App Store?
An Open Standard for App Distribution refers to a set of guidelines or specifications that are publicly available and can be implemented by anyone. It could include aspects like app monetization methods, app discovery mechanisms, and integration with various platforms. It's not necessarily a replacement for existing app stores but rather a framework that could be adopted by multiple app stores or platforms. The management or governance of such a standard would likely involve collaboration among industry stakeholders, possibly including developers, platform providers, and standards organizations.
F-droid.org is live and kicking. Reproducible build pipelines of open source apps et al. Decentralized repos, subscription feeds, key signing, etc.