New iOS 17.5 Beta Lets EU iPhone Users Download Apps Directly from Websites | Hacker News Reader

New iOS 17.5 Beta Lets EU iPhone Users Download Apps Directly from Websites

macrumors.com

24 pointsmarban9 comments

Yeah sure .. if they had 1 million downloads already, pay 50 cents per install yearly, teach the users to toggle it in the settings, still notarize the app by Apple and they have a 2+ year old delopper account (am I missing anything else?)

Let's say upfront that nobody will use that and that's the point.

It's definitely the point. The fee per install (after already having to pay Apple to get the app out there) is absurd given that you don't pay that on the 1 million App Store downloads required to even start.

Iirc the European Commission is already looking into that?

I’m confident the EC will talk some sense into apple and hopefully force it into playing fair (since the US antitrust is too much colluded to do anything)

I sure hope so, the intent here is pretty obviously not to open iOS up.

This is completely useless. The whole reason I want sideloading is to load whatever I want, stuff that isn’t on the App Store, stuff that isn’t popular

Do website-downloaded apps bypass apple distribution entirely? This hints not:

> Apps downloaded through the web using the API can be backed up, restored, and updated as standard apps can.

Wow. Apple quite literally went out of its way to insert itself into the download process, just so it can collect a tax of 50c per download.

That's beyond taking the piss.

I don't live in the EU but I _really_ hope this makes it to the US iPhones. I just want to be able to download and play GBA games on my iPhone.

I think you’ll be able to soon, even without sideloading. As per a recent Macrumours article:

> Notably, Apple confirmed to us that emulators on the App Store are permitted to load ROMs downloaded from the web, so long as the app is emulating retro console games only. Apple also said it had approved iGBA’s functionality, before learning that it was a knockoff app, suggesting that Game Boy emulation is permitted on the App Store, but the company has yet to share any other examples of retro game consoles.

https://www.macrumors.com/2024/04/15/apple-removes-igba-from...

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