What exactly is Apple's role in the sale of digital goods? You made a comparison to selling via Walmart, which is a false equivalency.
The app store can easily work like podcasts aggregating RSS feeds from developers, it's just that Apple has forcefully inserted itself into the transaction
The entire premise of the App Store, permissions and sandboxing is that users should be able to download anything from the App Store willy nilly and know that it won’t do the same type of invasive crap that can happen on Windows and Macs.
The App Store is not a flea market. Podcasts can’t install malware, eat battery life, invade privacy, etc.
I’m very careful about what I install on my personal computers. I install all sorts of crap on my iOS devices with some type of assurance about knowing what they can and can’t do.
1. Sandboxing doesn't need apple's app store, it's manual policy enforcement and arbitrary anti competitive rejections. Many, many sandboxes have existed with well documented permissioning systems that don't need anointing by manual reviewers.
2. Speaking of flea markets and the false equivalency of the app store to a Walmart, Walmart doesn't require banning flea markets but the app store (Apple) bans sideloading. Walmart and flea markets coexist peacefully.
3. Just because you enjoy being chaparoned on iOS, doesn't mean everyone does. Go ahead and enjoy willy-nilly installs from the app store, but don't block user's choice to circumvent Steve Jobs' image of the universe
The truth is that Apple doesn't play a role in the sale of digital goods, or meaningfully increase security outside automated sandboxing. The real premise of the app store is totalitarianism and greed
Sandboxing doesn't need apple's app store, it's manual policy enforcement and arbitrary anti competitive rejections. Many, many sandboxes have existed with well documented permissioning systems that don't need anointing by manual reviewers.
Where is an example of that actually working in the consumer market? How has that worked out for Android?
2. Speaking of flea markets and the false equivalency of the app store to a Walmart, Walmart doesn't require banning flea markets but the app store (Apple) bans sideloading. Walmart and flea markets coexist peacefully.
Android and iOS also coexist. If you care about “freedom” you are free to use Android like 80%+ of the rest of the smart phone market.
Just because you enjoy being chaparoned on iOS, doesn't mean everyone does. Go ahead and enjoy willy-nilly installs from the app store, but don't block user's choice to circumvent Steve Jobs' image of the universe
This. It should be so simple, use the platform that best caters to your requirements. Instead, people are happier to bitch and moan about the tactics of a company we've been able to understand for the past 12 years rather than just use and evangelise the platform that best suits their needs.