[tokyodude]

I'd believe I'd rather just have a secure platform that's open to any apps, no gatekeepers. Kind of like the web. Almost anyone can make an website and no gatekeeper gets in the way. We mostly trust the browsers are secure (or at least I trust Chrome to be secure, maybe Firefox too soon).

I feel like iOS in particular could already do this. They could just let users install apps from anywhere and then do their best to keep their platform secure.

I'm sure others disagree though but I feel like if you want a gatekeeper you should opt in. You're free to only install apps certified by "somecompanywhoauditsapps.com" or "apple.com" but if you want to you're also free to just install them from anywhere.

I suppose you'd still end up with the same problem that if you choose to go through "apple.com" they might not approve your app but hopefully with alternatives there would be more incentive to provide better support. I can certainly imagine Epic Games would jump at chance to offer their own iOS store. Valve might as well.

[yulaow]

I believe it is _STRONGLY_ against apple/google interests to allow apps to be installed from anywhere especially considering they have an economic interest on their own marketplaces... actually I think they are soon gonna even discourage the use of webapps in subtle (eg on purpose performance hits on browser experiences) or not subtle ways.

[bitwize]

Get used to gatekeepers and censors. If you say or do the wrong thing too loudly, MasterCard will step in and yank your ability to accept payment out from under you.

[southerndrift]

On Android, you already have this since you can install apps directly. There is no dedicated open store, but nobody is preventing developers from publishing their Android apps on their homepage.

[Semaphor]

> There is no dedicated open store

For FOSS at least, there is F-Droid.

[acct1771]

Which even allows addition of custom repositories, if, say, Epic Games wanted to make use of such.

[teilo]

>I feel like iOS in particular could already do this.

And give publishers like Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, and similar the ability to offer in-app purchases that bypass Apple’s 30% cut? Never gonna happen.

[glow8]

> (or at least I trust Chrome to be secure, maybe Firefox too soon)

What's wrong with Firefox? Are you talking about yourself or some security update coming soon?