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by miki123211 617 days ago
You could still do enforcement through legal rather than technical means, though.

Disallow installing apps from outside the App Store, provide no system UI to do so. Prohibit apps from being app stores themselves or running code that didn't pass app review, with exceptions for dev tools etc. Make apps able to escape the sandbox, at least in some ways.

Even if an app somehow sneaks past app review and gives users unfettered access to their devices, it can't ever get too many users. If it's unpopular, it's not a concern to Apple, if it becomes popular, Apple will know about it and can levy very heavy contractual fines on the dev.
3 comments
fy20 617 days ago
It's worth mentioning none of these concerns affected Android / Google Play, even though it's fairly easy to sideload and even install custom app stores there.

The only phones that come with alternative stores are from Chinese manufacturers, which isn't going to be an issue for Apple as the operating system isn't open source.

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Operyl 617 days ago
Didn’t Samsung introduce their own App Store?

https://galaxystore.samsung.com/

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hatsix 617 days ago
it ships both app stores on every android phone. In my experience, people only use the Samsung store by accident
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Operyl 617 days ago
I was just refuting the “only Chinese phones have alt stores” factoid.
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wkat4242 617 days ago
The OPs main point was that the existence of sideloading or third-party app stores hasn't led to major security issues. And apps still have to comply with the sandboxing.
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benoau 617 days ago
Your ideas are explicitly illegal in the EU and, if the law ever passes, would be illegal in the US too. Frankly I think we are past having to figure out ways for Apple to tax software usage in all circumstances, just wait for the law to catch up and it's all moot. In fact, just the Epic case seeks to rewrite what amounts to 70% of App Store spending: gacha games being able to link to their own billing options.

> The legislation aims to prevent Big Tech companies from "self-preferencing" their own products at the expense of competitors.[3] Under AICO, covered platforms would be forbidden from disadvantaging other companies' products or services.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Innovation_and_Choice...

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beeflet 617 days ago
that still sounds like technical means
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