Get ready for the Google Play Store for iOS. Or the Amazon Appstore for iOS. Governments around the world are getting ready to break Apple’s hold on how apps are loaded onto the iPhone.
The entire idea of an App Store, or at least its widespread acceptance and adoption, is a creation of Apple. Before the App Store, downloading and installing apps to a mobile device was frustrating and difficult. Developers could choose to support a limited number of devices and sell their software directly to users. Updates were a pain and if you had a new device, reinstallation was a pain. Regulators with short memories are ushering us back to that era.
With the European Union leading the charge and compelling Apple to enable alternative ways to pay for and load apps onto iOS devices, Japan has followed suit.
A report in The Japan Times says that Japanese Government panel has drafted regulations that will force Apple and Google to enable users to load apps onto devices without being confined to the App Store or Google’s Play Store. The regulation of Google’s app ecosystem is already far looser than Apple’s with side-loading and alternate app stores already around.
One would think that the news is all bad and that developers are losing out massively when it comes to how apps are sold and distributed. But with Apple reporting that App Store developers reaped USD$1.1T (that’s trillion, not billion) in billings and sales last year, 90% of which gave no commission to Apple, it’s not like it’s all bad news for developers.
For users, the confidence that apps are more likely to be vetted for security issues is a significant benefit of the App Store. I get that the App Store is not perfect – advertising malware has been found in apps distributed through Apple’s App Store. But that risk is considerably lower than what is found in the Play Store and the ‘Wild West’ of apps being distributed directly through sites that distribute software than can be side loaded (installed directly with going through an intermediary like an app store).
The question remains – will these regulatory changes actually result in a change in user behaviour? I don’t expect that I’ll be loading software outside the App Store. I’ve pretty much stopped using direct downloads for software on my Mac as the ability to have software regularly updated without me needing to scan my system regularly saves me time and reduces the risk of a malicious app loading on my Mac.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.