Not having the ability to side load apps and having only one store is why I buy an iPhone in the first place.
Facebook, Google, TikTok w/eTok would move to their own store or to some shell they’ll set up and then move out of the App Store eventually you’ll be surprised how easy it would be for them to move their user base.
If they’ll be able to pull off shit like requiring you to allow location sharing in the background all the time to use the app or force you to share contacts for the app to load which they would definitely be able to do as there would be no policies in place to prevent that that alone would be worth the cost of migrating to their own store even if they’ll lose a few customers…
If you want to side load apps already then just buy a dev account and or use TestFlight there are ways to getting FOSS apps on your phone, it’s just has a buy in cost right now.
Allowing users to do that for free by having to register for a dev account and registering their device might be a good compromise if you really only want to allow side loading for FOSS uses.
Yeah, because that is what totally happened with Android which has 72% market share. Or is it? In actuality there were some alternative stores like Opera or Yandex store and all of them die out on some point. Amazon has an android store but you can't find a lot of apps there. There are vendor stores like samsung's or huawei's stores and my favorite f-droid, for OSS apps. But you can find EVEERYTHING in google play store and you'll have a hard time to live without it, like on Chinese devices or if you want to have de-googled android you'll need to find APKs on some weird mirrors. So no I don't buy it.
I really dislike this constant refrain, because as soon as more stores can be integrated, all bets are off. Everybody who says this gives off the impression they aren't thinking more than 5 minutes into the future and we start seeing stuff like Epic having exclusive games, or Origin, or whatever else. And you better believe someone like Facebook and/or Amazon is going to take advantage of being able to build their own store.
The issues with Apple arbitrarily banning things is a real issue, among others, and I acknowledge that and that these things need to be fixed. But don't throw the baby out with the bath water and make everyone's life who uses iOS more miserable along the way.
And no, some researcher finding out about that happening wouldn't really cause them to change their behavior. And even IF somebody outside of the HN bubble found out about it, I doubt the vast majority of people would change their own behavior and get rid of the apps or anything.
Apple is never going to build a perfect OS with no security holes and they'll never be able to 100% guarantee that an app isn't doing something like that. But the threat of having that activity discovered and Apple straight up removing everything from the App Store is enough to kind of force them into being a better actor than they would be if they controlled their own store. (see the incident where Apple found out about something Facebook was doing with their enterprise certificate and then revoked it, crippling tons of internal apps on top of their user-facing stuff)
1. OS patches would break apps making app users unhappy.
2. Patched OS could warn users of exploit attempts, damaging app reputation.
It does depend, though. If you look at regulation and market type on a 2x2 grid, as you slide towards the scale of perfectly competitive markets, the requirement to regulate drops to zero. As you go to monopoly, regulation becomes a larger requirement.
So, in the net, a heavily regulated walled garden provides the same utility as a perfectly competitive market. I think Apple can keep their one-store model so long as they abide by comprehensive regulations up-to-and-including lowering commissions and allowing apps to advertise other ways to subscribe outside of IAP.
Google doesn’t have a problem with it and they’ve allowed it forever.
Just check the PC gamedev scene. There is basically zero constraints on getting an app installed and users are used to it, yet devs jump through hoops to be published on Steam because it gives visibility and access to many desirable features.
If only the abilities to use Apple Pay in-app or to use Apple's advertisement distribution system are probably a good enough reason for 80% of the existing apps to continue being on the store.