Looks like the EU is going to force Apple to allow side-loading and alternate app stores on iOS. Mixed opinions, as I’d expect. Myself, I hate the idea and hope Apple tells them to fuck off.

I’m one of the few dev-types that like that there’s just one App Store and that side-loading is hard or impossible for regular people.

It’s not the grandmothers and children of the world that are going to be bit by this the most. You know who we need to worry about? It’s the people with just enough tech savvy to be dangerous, who can follow some rando’s instructions just fine, but never stop to ask themselves “is it a good idea to install this game from totally-not-hacking-your-phone.ru?”

The other big argument I see is that Safari on iOS is terrible and this is going to let other browsers (i.e. Chrome) run proper versions. The altruistic part of me thinks this could work out great and we’d see innovation and improvements in Safari and Chrome.

I was around for the browser wars, for IE Tabs, Firefox, and eventually Chrome. You know what’s going to happen? All those lazy devs complaining about Safari will just start sniffing User-Agents and blocking it. They’ll also do it wrong and break their site on Safari desktop while they’re at it.

Finally, the In App Purchase argument. Look, indie-devs, I get it. It’s an expensive cut for you and I wish it was cheaper. But, as a consumer, I actually LOVE managing everything through Apple. They make it easy for me to give you money and to stop giving you money if I decide we’re not doing business anymore. I’ve worked on payment stuff, so I know how badly lazily you’re probably doing it.

Of course, none of this is about indie-devs or user choice. It’s about big boys like Epic and Meta paying back their lobbying dollars on Apple’s ecosystem by avoiding playing by Apple’s rules.

I hope if Apple complies it is in the most malicious way possible.