

It's not a great experience, we've just became used to it on the PC/Mac side. We go to reinstall, we have to dig up our key, and the cycle continues. My concern would be new, groundbreaking apps could then fall into the problem we have on macOS and Windows, where we have to find the webpage, give out our information and buy the app through a payment system we may or may not trust, get an access key, download the app, paste the key in, blah blah blah. There are no "technical" downsides to side-loading that couldn't be solved with a little engineering.

Should Apple make it possible to install apps outside the App Store on iPhone and iPad? Let us know your thoughts below. That's a fight where there are no winners, except for Android. However, instead of users fighting Apple, it will be the developers who have grown tired of the company's antics. Otherwise, a large scale mutiny will eventually come. And yes, it should also add Gatekeeper to iOS and iPadOS! At the same time, Apple can turn up its creative juices and give developers reasons to stick around the App Store ecosystem, just like it does for Mac software. By doing so, developers will be given more flexibility and independence. Twelve years in, it's time governments begin forcing Apple to end the App Store monopoly. Instead, it's because, like any good monopoly, the App Store makes the company billions each year. The reason Apple continues to run the mobile App Store as it does has little to do with quality control, security, or anything else an executive might say in public. The Mac App Store was decades late, and so had to be an option. IOW: The iOS App Store was the first, and hence could be the only way. "Because the Mac was always an open computing platform, it would have been impossible to take that away without a large scale mutiny by the user base.

Or as tech influencer Rene Ritchie explains: However, if they so choose, developers can bypass Apple's store and sell items online without giving the company part of the cut.īecause the Mac App Store launched after other software distribution channels, there was no way Apple could somehow restrict installation to only apps from that store. Otherwise, you can't sell your app for installation.ĭevelopers are provided the same tools to create products for sale in the Mac App Store. However, you must accept the commission rates and lengthy set of rules.

Better still, as a consumer, you always have access to the most updated version of a software title.įor mobile developers, Apple requires no overhead costs. The App Stores for iPhone and iPad are beautifully designed and take the guesswork out of finding high-quality content for those devices. The elephant in the room isn't a RepublicanĪpp Store July 2020 (Image credit: iMore)
