The number of people opposing these changes in this thread because "it will make their walled garden experience worse" without being able to bring up a single valid reason why would that be is astonishing.
What's to stop Microsoft, Meta, or Amazon from forcing you to download their own app store to use their apps? We kind of see this on PC already with every company having their own game or app store.
When Chrome is on iOS and is pushed on every Google search, what happens to health of the web? Does that create a new web monopoly?
It's not totally fair that Apple gives themselves special permissions and blocks competitors, or forces the prices they do from devs who would otherwise sell their apps through their website, but is that the lesser of two evils?
And if other large tech companies (as if Apple wasn't one of the biggest monopolies itself) have to be broken down, so be it. I too consider companies like Google way too big.
But as a user, and a small developer, I have more pressing issues with the iOS ecosystem than "what ifs" about Google.
Like Apple does now, except for every app.
> We kind of see this on PC already with every company having their own game or app store.
No we don't. Those are fringe and mostly unsuccessful. And even then, those companies should not have to pay 30% of their revenue to steam, so fuck that.
> When Chrome is on iOS and is pushed on every Google search, what happens to health of the web? Does that create a new web monopoly?
Forcing everyone to use Safari is a web monopoly.
What have they done in the last few years? Minor incremental updates to existing products, release another screen-strapped-to-face product years late to the party while also failing to figure out what to do in the software space to justify the device, and started issuing credit cards because they needed to branch out from just getting a cut of all sales that happen on-platform.
as if iOS prevents them from being scammed or giving away sensitive info in a meaningful way that macOS does not
2. I don't want my phone to run arbitrary code, that's what my Mac is for. People install unknown third-party apps on their iPhones all the time, which is safe enough. Now imagine Apple was forced to make iPhones more like Macs in this respect. When was the last time you installed an unknown third-party Mac app?
3. If the govt does something along the lines of preventing Apple from pre-installing their own apps, or some other way of forcibly informing users that they have alternatives, that's annoying for anyone who uses those default apps anyway.
4. Forcibly opening the iMessage protocol could lead to more spam or hold up Apple adding new features that Android doesn't support. And Apple is going to adopt RCS anyway.
5. Govt regulations on software have historically not done much good for regular users. GDPR got us modal cookie notifications on every site, which some nerds really liked along with the takeout stuff, but most people saw as useless and annoying. Plenty of iPhone users are happy with the status quo.
Except Android allows other stores since forever and that didn't happen so this is proven to be an incorrect assumption.
I see this and other blatantly wrong, easily verifiable, takes so often that I wonder if those who write even know how things work in Android or they just live in an iOS bubble and assume things about Android.
On the other hand, I can download Amazon, Meta and Microsoft apps from Google playstore. Even Apple uses it.
Then don't run it. Personally, I want all my devices that run third-party software to have strong sandboxing and defense-in-depth security. Even apps from developers I trust and admire can be compromised due to vulnerabilities and other types of attack.
Today the development process inside Apple treats the full software stack, from underlying OS to the homescreen UI (SpringBoard) to the user-facing apps (built-in or not), as a virtual monolithic system. All these gets built and integrated every day, leading up to each iOS (and MacOS) release. This allows new features to be released which are integrated together across many apps. This is what the people come to know as "The Apple Experience." When your phone does its big iOS update overnight, you get all the new features together.
Critically, these iOS updates can introduce any number of breaking changes to their internal APIs, databases, protocols, configuration files, etc. The daily integration and daily testing is responsible for making sure the final product still Just Works.
If the government gets its way here, Apple would be forced to develop all the built-in apps using public APIs, and would need to make sure those APIs don't ever break -- or else risk another "uncompetitive behavior" lawsuit.
Could that be made to work? Sure. But then the overall Apple Experience would very likely be worsened, as Apple would not be able to make certain breaking changes any more, and would overall move slower due to having to carry all the external apps along with any internal plans. The experience of Apple customers becomes worse because some people want it to mimic Android's model.
This lawsuit is anti-consumer.