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Apple must open iPadOS to sideloading within 6 months, EU says

arstechnica.com

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Re: Apple must open iPadOS to sideloading within 6 months, EU says

#111

Post by globular-toast »

anileated wrote: post #80

Do I think side-loading and alt app stores would make iPads and iPhones more versatile devices? Yes. Do I believe indie devs will be worse off? Unfortunately, also yes. If you are a solo app developer, you will now have to keep presence on all app stores out there, since if you don’t publish on one then a copycat will. Every store would have its own review processes, fee structures, billing and tax procedures. Since…

Sounds like they need a meta-bundler that will build bundles for all of the app stores then.

Re: Apple must open iPadOS to sideloading within 6 months, EU says

#112

Post by blackoil »

kgc wrote: post #107
pjerem wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is already mitigated with copyright laws. If a copycat is using your brand, you’ll have zero issue removing them from any App Store. If a copycat is just copying your app, well, that’s called a competitor.

Indie devs typically won’t have the resources to monitor and react to a constant flow of copycats.

No one copies small indie apps. Copying makes sense only with popular apps.

Also, web is very open ecosystem and phishing is a problem but for users and corporate, not for small devs

Re: Apple must open iPadOS to sideloading within 6 months, EU says

#113

Post by pjerem »

AlchemistCamp wrote: post #72
mullingitover wrote: post #52

EU seems like it’s just going to keep daring Apple to exit their market. I’m looking forward to their regulations requiring Apple to write open source drivers for the alternative operating system installs they’ll be required to allow.

It will probably happen at some point. In 1990, the EU was easy to do business in and represented 25% of world GDP. Now it’s exceeding difficult to do business in and represents just 14% of world GDP. If those two trends continue, there will be a point where it’s just not worth it for large companies to be threatened with fines on their “global turnover”.

You know that EU also have computers engineers ? It’s not like we couldn’t survive without Apple or Google.

Probably nobody wants it to happen but if it were to happen, well, I prefer regulated companies than monopolies.

Re: Apple must open iPadOS to sideloading within 6 months, EU says

#114

Post by camillomiller »

kevingadd wrote: post #5

I'm genuinely surprised by this. I figured the differences between tablets and phones, combined with Apple's efforts to distinguish between 'iPadOS' and 'iOS', would be enough to get them a win on this point. If the shared app store is part of the problem I wonder if that makes it a liability for any new apple ecosystem to tie into the App Store, like Vision OS for example.

The number of user is the important metric. I doubt VisionOS will quickly get to the threshold that would make the EU deem it a gatekeeping piece of software.

Re: Apple must open iPadOS to sideloading within 6 months, EU says

#115

Post by thebruce87m »

rezonant wrote: post #77
thebruce87m wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Complaining about downvoting is bad form. If you are temporarily downvoted on a post and react by editing it to complain, that's a surefire way for that post to remain negative on its point balance.

I’m not scared by downvotes. I called out bad form as I interpreted it, just as you are you are doing now. Posting facts in HN should not warrant downvotes. Neither should reasonable discussions.

Re: Apple must open iPadOS to sideloading within 6 months, EU says

#116

Post by viraptor »

kgc wrote: post #107
pjerem wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is already mitigated with copyright laws. If a copycat is using your brand, you’ll have zero issue removing them from any App Store. If a copycat is just copying your app, well, that’s called a competitor.

Indie devs typically won’t have the resources to monitor and react to a constant flow of copycats.

If it's a common issue, services for automatic multi-store deployment and checks like that will appear very soon.

Re: Apple must open iPadOS to sideloading within 6 months, EU says

#117

Post by user_7832 »

anileated wrote: post #80

Do I think side-loading and alt app stores would make iPads and iPhones more versatile devices? Yes. Do I believe indie devs will be worse off? Unfortunately, also yes. If you are a solo app developer, you will now have to keep presence on all app stores out there, since if you don’t publish on one then a copycat will. Every store would have its own review processes, fee structures, billing and tax procedures. Since…

You raise some valid points, but I believe your comparison isn't quite complete/holistic.

> If you are a solo app developer, you will now have to keep presence on all app stores out there, since if you don’t publish on one then a copycat will.

This doesn't make much sense. The App Store will still be where 90%+ apps are installed from, and I'm willing to bet money on that. Where are all the Google Play devs pushing their apps on the Amazon store or on 3rd party app stores?

> Furthermore, I believe you will have much less protection against plain piracy, which was a big thing in the days of yore until it was spectacularly dealt with by Apple within its mobile ecosystem.

Depending on your familiarity you already had lots of such websites (I'm not going to mention any names but it's easily googleable if anyone wants to verify). Yes keeping the app for >7 days was a pain as they expire but a 3rd party altserver helps with that.

> This is why I suspect the primary interests side-loading and alt app stores on Apple devices would satisfy is large enterprises and a few opportunistic middlemen.

Have you taken a look at any of the privacy forums/subreddits? Places where they use say GrapheneOS? Do you know what's their favorite app store? It's this thing called F-droid. And it only contains open source apps. Such a move would be amazing for open source devs. Hell, it would be great for beginner/hobbyist devs too. I (ages ago) had tried my hand at android dev. And unlike iOS, you don't need to pay $99 to appease the Apple gods for that. Free publishing is great for indie and small devs who may never hit $99/yr revenue.

Btw, afaik you already needed to pay a higher price for youtube premium if subscribing through the app. And apple's draconian/benevolent-and-super-nice policies (/s) meant that you couldn't even tell your users to get it for cheaper from elsewhere. Would you like paying 30% of your income regardless of choice?

Re: Apple must open iPadOS to sideloading within 6 months, EU says

#118

Post by Longhanks »

With these legislations, I always wonder how the lawmakers come up with timeframes like 6 months. Who is to say this implementation doesn't take, say, a year? I doubt lawmakers have the technological know how to estimate such a project (actually, I doubt anyone has) - but 6 months seems rather short (given they hadn't just had to implement the same thing for iOS)...?

Re: Apple must open iPadOS to sideloading within 6 months, EU says

#119

Post by outofpaper »

mrighele wrote: post #98
anileated wrote: post #80

Do I think side-loading and alt app stores would make iPads and iPhones more versatile devices? Yes. Do I believe indie devs will be worse off? Unfortunately, also yes. If you are a solo app developer, you will now have to keep presence on all app stores out there, since if you don’t publish on one then a copycat will. Every store would have its own review processes, fee structures, billing and tax procedures. Since…

I disagree. First of all I expect competing stores to ask a smaller cut than what currently Apple asks (and Apple itself may lower it), so it may very well be the case even with a middleman the amount "lost" by the developer will be lower. Not a given though, I guess we will see. Secondly, the Android ecosystem seems to be doing well even with the situation you describe. There are not that many competing stores (most…

I agree with you on most counts save for the piracy. It's highly dependent on market segment, with less affluent sectors especially with youth you'll find very high privacy rates.

I look forward to the day an fdroid like platform is available on Apple phones and tablets.

Re: Apple must open iPadOS to sideloading within 6 months, EU says

#120

Post by user_7832 »

76SlashDolphin wrote: post #99
anileated wrote: post #80

Do I think side-loading and alt app stores would make iPads and iPhones more versatile devices? Yes. Do I believe indie devs will be worse off? Unfortunately, also yes. If you are a solo app developer, you will now have to keep presence on all app stores out there, since if you don’t publish on one then a copycat will. Every store would have its own review processes, fee structures, billing and tax procedures. Since…

Do you think sideloading hurts indie developers on Android? I believe that over time the situation on iOS will become identical to the one on Android - Google Play/the App Store will be the primary way to install apps for 99% of users since it's the default and has the biggest catalogue; some companies that are unhappy with Google Play/App Store fees will have an alternative store just for their apps (see Epic games)…

I hardly see any critic of the DMA talk about things like F-Droid. I suppose the generous explanation is that they don't know.
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