Apple CEO Tim Cook: Sideloading Apps Would 'Destroy the Security' of the iPhone

Amazing Iceman said:
Wrong. Otherwise, why would some hacker waste time pirating bad software? There will always be people pirating good software like the Adobe Suite, etc.
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Then it’s Adobe’s fault to not price their products accordingly to make their stuff a bit more affordable. So for people who wants to use those amazing softwares but no or extremely limited ways to legally obtain them, what option do they have? Pirate them.
 
He is absolutely right this would destroy the security of the iphone. Sideloaded apps are not curated. There is no third party verifying the developer's code.

I hope the developers arent happy with this move. All this means is that piracy might be more rampant.


All the while i was happy that IOS isnt going to be more like android....but here it is, being pushed to be android.
 
On my Samsung Android phone, I have to go into the setting menu, navigate to the about screen and tap ~6 times on one of the info boxes. Then a pop up warns me that I’m enabling developer mode. Then I have to go back into the settings menu to find the new developer options. And then I can turn on side loading.

there’s no clear indication that this can be done. You have to search the internets to find this out.

This is a little silly because, if the feature exist, the Internet will know about it as will anyone with the will to look it up.

It is difficult for Apple. They are trying to protect their profits, but they are also trying to protect their customers to a certain degree to maintain a level of trust and keep sales numbers high. They have to try to balance that out. Personally, I would love to have side loading as an option on iOS and iPadOS and I’d likely never be compromised. Plus I’d still use the Apple App Store for the majority of my apps. But there are tons of people who just Install whatever crapwhere pretends to be the latest Flappy Bird game and that’s how malicious software spreads.

I don’t like that Apple says these things and continues to keep things tightly locked down. But I can’t say that’s it’s the right decision to open things up the way I want them to.

I do dislike the ******** excuses, though. Apple is never going to give it to us straight. They play politics when it comes to talking about this stuff. It’s word games and it’s exhausting when you can see right through the BS.
 
I just love the people disagreeing with Tim Cook and "telling him" (as if he's gonna read this forum or cares what anybody here says LOL) that you don't want him not allowing side loading. Hello MR members, it's not your choice and you have zero power on Apple. Tim Cook and Apple make that decision. 😂
 
Absolute Trainwreck said:
You seem to consistently be missing or perhaps purposefully ignoring the point that a toggle solves all of this. Users that don’t want to sideload can turn that functionality off and by doing so only get their apps from the still-curated AppStore as it currently is. The App Store content will not change due to this.

For someone who claims to be advocating for customer choice, you sure do seem mighty opposed to it where it counts.
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Customer's do have a choice, it's called android.

This new regulation isn't giving you choices. It's forcing companies and customers to accept only 1 model of a mobile operating system.
 
jk1221 said:
Curious. Who would be FORCING you to download anything from anywhere else?

People keep talking like they would be forced to do this at all if they didn't want to. Despite having to actively enable it first. Same with Mac. You are free to get 100% of your software from the App Store if you so choose.

Are we generally living in an era of such denial of self-responsibility that Apple (or any OS maker for that) is liable for what you download from the internet? People get in trouble downloading stuff from shady sites or pirate/torrent sites; that is the vast majority of malicious attacks with installing software. Not from Adobe's website, or some legit developer's own site.

Apple is a $1 trillion plus company. They can surely figure out a prompt warning before any application is installed so that you don't click a malicious link and something is auto-installed without you knowing to avoid any of the outlier cases people raise.

How many people have had their data compromised from a jailbreak over all of the years? I have not heard of any in the community over the years at least.

But they won't. Apple will lose its a**. Think about a small developer with a $4 app. They sell 500k copies (not per month/year, just in general to keep the math easy). They pay Apple 30% or $600k of that $2 million. Now if they set up their own website store and use a traditional payment processor let's say it's 3-4%. They can let you download it from their site and side load it. Apple just lost $600k of income on 1 app and the developer saved $500k+ Hmmm I wonder what many developers would do..... I get App Store convenience of handling hosting/refunds/promoting, but talking half a million bucks is no pennies.

And that is not counting subscriptions or IAPs.

Apple would lose hundreds of millions of dollars or more in app revenue. That is the real reason.
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I wouldn't as Im sure the majority would not buy from anyplace other than Apple. If I couldn't buy the app from Apple I dont need it. So just for arguments sake, if you side load an app and all hell breaks loose do you expect Apple to fix your phone?The majority buy Apple products as we feel safe buying from the store and like the way the ecosystem works.
 
frenchcamp49er said:
I wouldn't as Im sure the majority would not buy from anyplace other than Apple. If I couldn't buy the app from Apple I dont need it. So just for arguments sake, if you side load an app and all hell breaks loose do you expect Apple to fix your phone?The majority buy Apple products as we feel safe buying from the store and like the way the ecosystem works.
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Back in the early days of the iPad 1, there was an app for jailbroken iPads that offered full mouse support. It obviously wasn't available in the official app store. "full" as in traditional support as found on desktop computers (and Android devices). It worked perfectly. Hell didn't break loose... but then again, I'm an adult who understands that if I do something like this and things break, it's my fault, not Apple's.
 
Cant wait for the developers to start crying about that. Apple's response "We told you so." People want tp pay less and the like it even more when its free.
 
Absolute Trainwreck said:
I am a dev but thanks for speaking on my behalf, even if you did it wrong.

the best way to prevent piracy is to make a good product that people deem worth the cost. If your stuff has been suffering from piracy well I’m sorry about that
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As a pirate, I laugh at this statement. I don’t pay for software, unless it’s on the App Store.

If it’s out there for free, most people will think, why pay for it?

Pirating software on windows, or even on MacOS is easy as eating pecan pie.

Pirating on iOS is a huge chore, and apple has made payment completely frictionless with Apple Pay. It’s enticed me into making several purchases because it’s super fast. Maybe that’s why it’s successful? 🤔
 
jk1221 said:
Curious. Who would be FORCING you to download anything from anywhere else?

People keep talking like they would be forced to do this at all if they didn't want to. Despite having to actively enable it first. Same with Mac. You are free to get 100% of your software from the App Store if you so choose.

Are we generally living in an era of such denial of self-responsibility that Apple (or any OS maker for that) is liable for what you download from the internet? People get in trouble downloading stuff from shady sites or pirate/torrent sites; that is the vast majority of malicious attacks with installing software. Not from Adobe's website, or some legit developer's own site.

Apple is a $1 trillion plus company. They can surely figure out a prompt warning before any application is installed so that you don't click a malicious link and something is auto-installed without you knowing to avoid any of the outlier cases people raise.

How many people have had their data compromised from a jailbreak over all of the years? I have not heard of any in the community over the years at least.

But they won't. Apple will lose its a**. Think about a small developer with a $4 app. They sell 500k copies (not per month/year, just in general to keep the math easy). They pay Apple 30% or $600k of that $2 million. Now if they set up their own website store and use a traditional payment processor let's say it's 3-4%. They can let you download it from their site and side load it. Apple just lost $600k of income on 1 app and the developer saved $500k+ Hmmm I wonder what many developers would do..... I get App Store convenience of handling hosting/refunds/promoting, but talking half a million bucks is no pennies.

And that is not counting subscriptions or IAPs.

Apple would lose hundreds of millions of dollars or more in app revenue. That is the real reason.
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You seemed to have completely missed the point of my post. No one is forcing anyone to turn on side-loading, but the minute a software switch is provided to allow you to side-load apps, you have baked in a method to bypass some of iOS security. Once that method is baked directly into the OS, it will make it far easier for malicious actors to bypass additional security measures in iOS. Thus, even if someone does not have side-loading enabled, a properly built malicious website might be able to trick someone into clicking a button that surreptitiously turns on side-loading and allows a malicious app in. This is obviously a big what-if, and side-loading won't automatically mean iOS becomes the Wild West (I imagine apps would still need a valid signature to be installed, just like on macOS), but once a backdoor is created, even a small one, you have now made it infinitely easier to hack into. We've actually seen this on macOS, with some well coded malicious apps bypassing Gatekeeper, even when Gatekeeper is set to only allow Mac App Store apps to run.

Again, this a big what-if scenario, but I do understand where Tim Cook is coming from. Security and privacy are at the heart of what the iPhone is, far more than what it is on macOS, undermining that model, even a little, is a scary prospect.
 
I don’t understand. People said they want choice. Well, you do. The choice is Android. Forcing Apple to be like Android is eliminating choice.

“I want choice so your choice should not be allowed” What kind of logic is this? If people want a platform to tinker with, get Android. If people want a walled garden, it’s their choice and Apple catered to that group.

I picked Android because I know what I want. People who want iOS to become Android basically has no clue of what they want.
 
Absolute Trainwreck said:
I am a dev but thanks for speaking on my behalf, even if you did it wrong.

the best way to prevent piracy is to make a good product that people deem worth the cost. If your stuff has been suffering from piracy well I’m sorry about that
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Sorry but if someone can get it for free no matter how great the app they will. Stop being naive.
 
If apple were not such control freaks (creating a closed system so they can control the apps run on that system) after Mac OS proved too flexible. They would create development tools that would allow non approved apps be created that cannot access certain functions to keep security tight and only give access to that to paying developers who meet a standard.
 
reyesmac said:
If apple were not such control freaks (creating a closed system so they can control the apps run on that system) after Mac OS proved too flexible. They would create development tools that would allow non approved apps be created that cannot access certain functions to keep security tight and only give access to that to paying developers who meet a standard.
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There is already ways to create any apps on iOS without Apple's nitpickings. Web apps.
 
Kype said:
Customer's do have a choice, it's called android.

This new regulation isn't giving you choices. It's forcing companies and customers to accept only 1 model of a mobile operating system.
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Oh yeah, phantom of choice. Pick your poison. Good for competition I know. :rolleyes:
 
reyesmac said:
If apple were not such control freaks (creating a closed system so they can control the apps run on that system) after Mac OS proved too flexible. They would create development tools that would allow non approved apps be created that cannot access certain functions to keep security tight and only give access to that to paying developers who meet a standard.
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But why should they when it works just fine as it is
 
robjulo said:
Because he cares about one thing…profit….no matter how many times he says he loves his customers. The amount of posters on here too blind to see this guy’s greed and hypocrisy is astounding.
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I know, it's infuriating.

If I were you, I'd stop coming to an Apple-centric website and posting. It's a lost cause here. Seriously, if you don't like Apple and their tactics or how they do business, then vote with your wallet and stop buying their products...which I have a feeling you already do. So perhaps take the next big step and stop coming to websites such as MacRumors. As you say, the "amount of posters on here are too blind...", so why subject your valuable time to it? Take a deep breath and move on! There's a fulfilling life out there!
 
theonlyeyes said:
They would make more money following the model of facebook/cambridge analytica. But they don’t. Also porno offer a lot of money. So what are you talking about?
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No, what are you talking about? Because I have no idea. Also, go look at how much money they make from the App Store. It’s a lot.
 
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