Big News: Apple Will Allow Outside App Stores In Response To EU Law

Here's some potentially very big news in the world of the mobile internet: after years of refusing to do so, Apple is finally going to allow third party app stores on iOS devices. This has been a discussion for a long, long time. Many people forget now, but the app store didn't even exist until the second generation of iPhones. On the first version, the only thing allowed were web apps, and frankly, that state of affairs was probably better for those who believe in an open, interoperable internet.

However, there are limitations to what can be done in web apps, and (especially) the ability of such apps to reach into deeper parts of the phone to take advantage of other phone-related services, which could make apps faster and more powerful. So, Apple pretty quickly launched its app store, which it made sure was basically the only way to get apps onto the phone. Google, on the other hand, has allowed third party app stores and direct sideloading of apps on Android for years, but more recently has tended to make that more and more difficult - even paying wireless carriers to not develop their own app stores.

Both Apple and Google have long insisted that putting themselves in as gatekeepers helps ensure a higher level of security, by allowing their teams to review apps more carefully before they can reach phones. In practice, however, it doesn't always work that way. Security compromising apps still get through. And we hear stories of apps being blocked for what certainly appear to be anti-competitive reasons.

So, this new move is a big one. It appears to be in direct response to the Digital Markets Act in the EU, which is set to take effect shortly.

The main new European law, dubbed the Digital Markets Act, takes effect in the coming months, but companies aren't required to comply with all of the rules until 2024. Government officials in the US and other countries have pushed for similar laws but haven't gotten as far as the EU yet.

The act requires technology companies to allow the installation of third-party apps and let users more easily change default settings. The rules demand that messaging services work together and that outside developers get equal access to core features within apps and services.

The laws apply to technology companies with market valuations of at least 75 billion ($80 billion) and a minimum of 45 million monthly users within the EU.

The report from Bloomberg notes that Apple seems to be doing this grudgingly, and notes that it hasn't been a popular initiative within Apple" and that engineers working on the plan also see it as distraction from typical day-to-day development of future features." Which, sure, whatever. You'll get over it. Having more sideloading should open up more opportunities for innovation, which could make your devices more useful. Enough with thinking everything needs a gatekeeper.

And, in fact, now that it's close to being required, we're seeing that for all the talk from Apple about the security risks associated with this, they may be figuring out ways to deal with that:

To help protect against unsafe apps, Apple is discussing the idea of mandating certain security requirements even if software is distributed outside its store. Such apps also may need to be verified by Apple - a process that could carry a fee. Within the App Store, Apple takes a 15% to 30% cut of revenue.

Of course, we'll need to see the details of how all this works in practice, but on the whole this is a good thing.

Now, here in the US, we've talked about bills that would effectively try to do the same thing, and while supportive of the concept, the bill that made its way through Congress, the Open Apps Market Act, had serious problems in that it had added language, at the request of certain Republican lawmakers, to make the bill a content moderation bill in disguise. There are ways to fix that, but if Apple just moves forward with being more open in general, we wouldn't even need such a bill in the US anyway.