Apple is finally allowing iPhone applications to be installed from places other than the App Store. It’s about reluctantly agreeing to the requirements of the European Union’s digital market regulation.
Bloomberg’s Apple reporter who made a name for himself with his insider information Mark Gurman tells in his paid newsletter Apple is finally going to allow iPhone applications to be installed from outside its own App Store as well.
It would be a historic decision, because the App Store has been the only place from which iPhone applications could be downloaded and installed without breaking the device’s protections. In practice, therefore, all applications that can be downloaded to the iPhone have been approved by Apple until now.
Instead, for example, on Android, Windows and even Mac, the user can download and install applications from outside the official application stores at their own risk.
Quoting Gurman’s newsletter by MacRumors according to the background of the big change is the digital market regulation of the European Union, against the demands of which Apple has been fighting until now. The change would be the first to be seen by EU residents – possibly by the middle of next year.
Until now, iPhone users have only been able to download applications approved by Apple to their phones. Adobe Stock
Good or bad thing?
The fact that the iPhone has not been able to download programs from other than the company’s own application store is, depending on the point of view, either the iPhone’s great competitive advantage or a significant disadvantage compared to, for example, Android, where applications can be installed much more freely.
On the other hand, Apple is able to keep the quality of the available applications at a higher level by controlling which applications are offered in the App Store for the iPhone in general. Apple itself has defended the iPhone’s strictly controlled application ecosystem with, among other things, privacy protection and data security.
However, the flip side of the coin is the handing over of significant power to Apple, because currently the user cannot download whatever he wants to the phone he owns. If the application does not meet Apple’s quality requirements, it will not be available in the App Store.
Not all app developers are happy about the App Store escape either, as Apple takes a slice of up to 30 percent of all monetary traffic in the App Store and internal purchases of apps downloaded from there. Apple is also under no pressure to change the practice, as there is no competition.
Similar pattern already on Mac
If Apple allows the installation of programs from outside the App Store, it can lead to an increase in the number of low-quality and, in the worst case, even harmful applications. Although the change would give the user more freedom to install applications, the user’s own responsibility would also take on a greater role than before.
It remains to be seen whether the Gatekeeper known from Mac will also arrive on the Ios operating system. Gatekeeper is a Mac security mechanism designed to ensure that only trusted software is used on the computer. However, it can be bypassed and even completely disabled if the user so wishes.
Apple has its own application store for Mac as well, but Mac users can still download applications to their computer from other sources as well.
When a Mac user downloads an application from somewhere other than the App Store, Gatekeeper checks that the software is from a known developer, that it does not contain known malicious content, and that it has not been modified.
Gatekeeper also asks for user approval before opening the downloaded software for the first time.
Sources: MacRumors, the European Commission