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Apple Starts Letting Developers Add Alternative App Marketplaces to App Store Connect
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DMA: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32022R1925
Item (50):
In order to ensure that third-party software applications or software application stores do not endanger the integrity of the hardware or operating system provided by the gatekeeper, it should be possible for the gatekeeper concerned to implement proportionate technical or contractual measures to achieve that goal if the gatekeeper demonstrates that such measures are necessary and justified and that there are no less-restrictive means to safeguard the integrity of the hardware or operating system.
In essence, gatekeepers maintain control.
I think a lot of people do not know what the DMA entails, and hope it is going to be a free-for-all. It is not.
Both Apple’s Notarization & Core Technology Fee totally defeat the purpose of the DMA, as is well highlighted in this thread:
forums.macrumors.com
This will just make any decent free app developers go out of business or pull out of the EU market altogether. I hope for the benefit of all that the EU throws it out and asks Apple to go back to the drawing board.
Apple’s DMA malicious compliance explained.
Apple is clear that it considers its commission to primarily be a licensing fee for use of its property and services. What legal basis are a developer falling in this category? what service are a developer using? Apple can’t require developer to register for any service? How can a developer have...
forums.macrumors.com
This will just make any decent free app developers go out of business or pull out of the EU market altogether. I hope for the benefit of all that the EU throws it out and asks Apple to go back to the drawing board.
Or they could just stay in the App Store. The EU’s beef with Apple doesn’t really concern them and it makes no difference where they choose to make their app available.Both Apple’s Notarization & Core Technology Fee totally defeat the purpose of the DMA, as is well highlighted in this thread:
Apple’s DMA malicious compliance explained.
Apple is clear that it considers its commission to primarily be a licensing fee for use of its property and services. What legal basis are a developer falling in this category? what service are a developer using? Apple can’t require developer to register for any service? How can a developer have...
This will just make any decent free app developers go out of business or pull out of the EU market altogether. I hope for the benefit of all that the EU throws it out and asks Apple to go back to the drawing board.
Yeah, that’s not a good argument in my opinion. A few thousand jail breaks, or even a few million Mac’s do not compare to literally billions of iPhones that carry your banking and credit cards, know where you are, have access to your calendar and contact information etc. I’m not predicting doom and gloom, but I can understand why Apple is nervous to let go of their content control.
Also: have you used a gaming PC recently? The number of ‘app stores’ drives me crazy. I want to play game X, but where in Thor’s name do I buy it??? Why do I have to log in AGAIN?
Thoroughly and wholeheartedly disagree.
Well, of course. Very few people had home computers at all in the 70's. And of course there are more and better options now if a parent wants to encourage their children to learn about computers/programming.
But increasingly, people are using primary devices they are locked down—if they even own an open computer at all.
I don't know, maybe I'm just being silly and there's nothing to worry about.
Yes but consoles are not primarily computing devices. Their sole role is to entertain and not to make you productive.
If released as open source, then you don't need to get these emulators from any App Store. Just download the source code to your Mac, enroll as a developer, and use Xcode to build and install the app directly to your device.
Why does it need to change for them? It’s a free app they are releasing at the end of the day. They get access to Apple’s user base for free and don’t pay a cent beyond that $99 per year developer fee.
What does being in a third party App Store afford them, exactly?
The App Store itself is now multiple stores. Some games you can buy outright, and others you have to subscribe to Apple Arcade to play.
I can mostly use Steam. Pretty much the only reason I also use other game stores is because of free game giveaways (Amazon Prime, Epic, GOG), or cheap bundles (humble, itch.io). 90%+ of the games I launch from other clients I could have purchased from Steam instead. For all the complaints about exclusivity on stores like Epic, in has less than a dozen exclusives that most gamers would have heard of, and about 40 in total. That's a drop in the bucket compared to the the number of quality games available on Steam.
What drives me crazy is that I have a lot of games that used to work on older Macs or iPads that no longer work on the newer OS releases. I have very few PC games that are incompatible with the newest version of Windows. But the nice thing is that if I bought a Steam game to play on a Mac, and new versions of MacOS stop working with it, I can still use the same purchase to play the PC version.
For PC gaming, you can stick exclusively to Steam and you'll have a better gaming library than you'd have on any Apple system (unless you only like playing Minecraft without mods, I guess).
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They chose iOS (with all its strengths and weaknesses) over android. Should that choice not be respected as well?
How many specifically factor in the lack of ability to sideload into the "positives" column when weighing their decision to go with an iPhone?
I know my decision to buy an iPhone had nothing to do with it not offering side-loading, because until recently I had no idea what that even was.
If iOS had a central file system I’d be worried, but nothing can really communicate (other than save a copy) outside of its little sandbox, so the fear of impending doom surrounding this seems completely irrational.
If you don’t want to get hacked, don’t enter personal information into 3rd party apps you don’t trust. That would be my advice to all those having kittens over this.
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Steam is one of the best things for gaming. I have a Steamdeck and love it! I agree and always prefer to buy Steam versions… all the other stores are a hassle. I used GoG but that disconnected too often from the linked stores (due to changing interfaces). I guess the other stores do not like initiatives like GoG…
No and I absolutely understand that argument. But that’s kind of an American thing all around. If you don’t like one bad choice, you can choose the other bad choice.
It is possible to choose a platform but also still want that platform and its owner to be a little better.
America’s motto should change to “Choose The Lesser Evil”
We have been living in 1984 ever since 1984. What’s ur point? You either are monitored by Apple or monitored by government, likely both.
Apple never wants to relinquish their control on iOS apps unless government makes better regulation to such extent that Apple can no longer find easy loopholes.
Especially when Americans always tout their country as “free country”. I would not say the table has turned on them but nice to see a win of sort.Don’t worry for us we’ll gladly enjoy that freedom like in macOS, while you americans ironically cry against it
How is their choice being 'disrespected' by giving others the freedom to choose?
Nobody is forcing anyone to buy anything outside their safe space.
Correct. For all of this regulation and hubris on MacRumors, nobody is forced to buy an iPhone and in fact have two weeks to return it, if they find it doesn’t meet their requirements.