Apple's Phil Schiller Discusses Risks of Alternative App Stores on iPhone

[CarAnalogy]

How come they never cared this much about the risk of downloading apps outside of the App Store on Mac 🙈

Give it time, they’re trying to re-write history there too. About the only reason they don’t make that claim is that the Mac would be dead without the developers and software that can’t work within the restrictive Mac App Store. They know if they try to squeeze that one too hard they’re just gonna strangle it.

iOS has no history of freedom to revise. That’s why the Vision Pro is based on iOS, not macOS. They don’t want any more open platforms to exist.

 

[raythompsontn]

You’ve never used a Mac have you.

Actually, you would be incorrect. I have had a M2 Air since its release. I used Macs extensively at a prior job. I am typing this on a MacBook Air M2. I also have a Windows PC and a Surface laptop.

 

[cupcakes2000]

How come they never cared this much about the risk of downloading apps outside of the App Store on Mac 🙈

It’s crazy. The Mac is a FAR LESS secure OS, with more opportunities to install nefarious apps, and when they’re installed, more ability to actually do damage.
IOS is dramatically more secure, with less options to even get apps on it, and even if you managed, they can do next to nothing.

 

[Yammabot]

Governments should stay out of business. Government does not know how to run government how can they possibly know how to run a complex business? The EU is sick with power and it’s hurting the people. Millions of lightning cables in the trash how did that help anyone? Did they get a kickback on the new cables? Are the law makers going to be personably liable for the side loading of apps? Who’s going after telcos for sim swapping? Something that’s actually an issue? Please stop the Nigerian prince from haunting my emails and phone! Please EU do something responsible.

 

[cupcakes2000]

new cables

Usbc is far from new

 

[raythompsontn]

Please EU do something responsible

You funny!

 

[CarAnalogy]

That is fine. Then don't blame Apple when your iPhone or iPad goes wonky and requires a complete reinstall of the OS.

Apple has protected their ecosystem for years to minimize problems for the users. Opening up the system to apps that have not been vetted by Apple is not a good idea. Think about Windows driver problems and user software. Or better yet, look at the problems with nefarious apps in the Android world.

This decision was made by government workers, technological clods, most of whom still have their VCR flashing 12:00.

Just take a look at the Apple Community Forums to see how users get nailed by installing crapware or malware on their Macs. And they DO blame Apple for it, expecting Apple to be protecting them from it. I’m not in opposition to third party app stores on the iPhone but users will install crapware and malware on their iPhones and WILL blame Apple for it as Well. The Wild West on the iOS platform is just beginning.

I will be happy to tell iPhone users who bricked their device or got scammed to take it up with their bank, the developer, but not Apple. Too bad, so sad. And when their kid runs up their bill in some game they purchased and paid for through a third party (Fortnite), again not Apple’s problem anymore.

No one who has an opinion on this subject is going to change their mind. I just find galling the naivete or selfishness of those who say “just don’t download third-party apps.” Now that there will be new pathways for malware to make it to Apple devices, more of said malware will be written. And I guarantee once it’s out there, it’ll find its way around the globe pretty quickly.

The biggest risk to users these days is phishing and scams. Most of these don’t even require software. Phishing scams work just fine in Safari.

Every month or so Apple patches critical remote code execution vulnerabilities. Most of these attacks come through email or text/iMessage.

All of these things already happen. Denying people software freedom won’t stop it. Apple has the most carefully locked down consumer operating systems on the planet. They can find a middle ground. They just don’t want to.

 

[DoogH]

It’s my device. If I want to take the risk, I can.

Honestly, Apple just wants 30%.

 

[lenard]

I would never get an app from a third party App Store. You stop supporting the core
Apple ecosystem and you may not have a device to put the software on.
Still can't understand why and developer think that Apple advertises your app
make it available without your help and expect to have all that for nothing.

 

[CarAnalogy]

This guy is genuinely just Apple marketing-speak in human form. I’ve never heard or read one insightful thing from him.

Seems to be an unpopular opinion but I’ve never liked Schiller. “Can’t innovate anymore my ass” said about one of their most embarrassingly strange dead end “innovations.” That really sums him up right there. He might be a smart guy about something but I really don’t understand why they let him talk to the public. I don’t see how anyone can take anything he says seriously. Every word out of his mouth is a deliberate twisting of the truth.

 

[ghostface147]

Seems to work fine on macOS.

 

[sw1tcher]

Another risk is that the App Store's strict rules surrounding objectionable content might not extend to alternative app marketplaces, according to Schiller. . .

Honestly, Apple shouldn't be the ones who get to decide what content they find acceptable and what is objectionable.

Apple Rejects eBook App Over Access to Kama Sutra

In an extensive blog entry, James Montgomerie reveals that Apple has repeatedly rejected his eBook reader iPhone application, Eucalyptus, due to its...

www.macrumors.com

 

[btrach144]

They brought Phil out of retirement just to say this?

Apple should be ashamed of themselves

 

[turbineseaplane]

Seems to work fine on macOS.

Apple so so so wishes the iPad/iPhone could have killed off macOS

There was a time when that was their hope and trajectory

I know I'll for sure be using something else if macOS ever gets fully "iOS'd" and locked down.

It dramatically lowers the usefulness and potential of a computing platform when you have such a meddling and self interested gate keeper of "what's possible"

 

[tambur123]

I fail to understand how an app can break the iOS or make it less secure. This fear-mongering from Apple is ridiculous and the users who defend such rhetoric are simply simpletons, no offense.

 

[Fuzzball84]

It’s nice to have options… but for my iOS devices I’ll stick to the official App stores.

 

[Radeon85]

He's one to talk considering how often Apple's walled garden has been breached with dodgy apps, apps with hidden emulators pretending to be something else and so on.

 

[sw1tcher]

Just take a look at the Apple Community Forums to see how users get nailed by installing crapware or malware on their Macs. And they DO blame Apple for it, expecting Apple to be protecting them from it. I’m not in opposition to third party app stores on the iPhone but users will install crapware and malware on their iPhones and WILL blame Apple for it as Well. The Wild West on the iOS platform is just beginning.

I will be happy to tell iPhone users who bricked their device or got scammed to take it up with their bank, the developer, but not Apple. Too bad, so sad. And when their kid runs up their bill in some game they purchased and paid for through a third party (Fortnite), again not Apple’s problem anymore.

So if any parent gets charged for something their kid didn't get permission to purchase, Apple is responsible for all of it if the app came from Apple's App Store?

You should tell Apple that.

Ten-Year-Old Kid Uses Mother's Credit Card To Buy $3,100 Worth Of Roblox Purchases, Apple Refused To Refund

A ten-year-old kid uses her mother's credit card for Roblox purchases and ends up spending more than $3,000 without her knowledge.

wccftech.com

Mother Georgina Munday from Denbighshire in Wales, United Kingdom, reported that she allowed her autistic daughter to use the family iPad for games, according to BBC News. The mother began seeing hundreds of transactions on the account and presumed that the account was hacked. The mother stated that "We'd just seen hundreds of transactions, these payment confirmations, so then the panic set in - oh my gosh, whose card is this on?" Munday spent a week going back and forth to Apple and Tesco Bank for a refund for the Roblox content that her ten-year-old kid made purchases for.

Initially, Apple and Tesco Bank both refused to refund because it was her daughter who made the purchases. Munday further stated that Apple would just read her terms and conditions for the refund that did not apply to her. She then contacted BBC for the story, and Tesco Bank acknowledged that she would get a refund. The bank said that her case went through a "further review" process that passed her Roblox refund. Furthermore, the bank also added additional payment to the initial as an apology and goodwill.

https://www.reddit.com/r/applehelp/comments/16vxkw9

My child made about 180 unauthorized in-app purchases without my permission in Apple’s App Store from Sep 12 2023 to Sep 27 2023. I did not receive any receipts of these purchases until Sep 27, that I received two small receipts from Minecraft and discovered this issue. But the 2-week purchases have accumulated to over $6000.

If Apple sent me any receipts to my email earlier, I would have found this issue earlier, talked to my child, and stopped her purchases earlier.

I requested refund from Apple, but they said “not eligible for refund”. I wrote the explanations and Apple declined all of my requests again.

 

[turbineseaplane]

He's one to talk considering how often Apple's walled garden has been breached with dodgy apps, apps with hidden emulators pretending to be something else and so on.

They don't really care about security or privacy as long as they get their cut
Apple is sort of a digital mob boss

 

[antnythr]

I remember when technology was actually made by enthusiasts for enthusiasts. It's sad seeing so many people here paralyzed by fear begging Apple to protect them from the big scary world that Apple tells them is out there.

 

[bpp85]

One would think Americans on this forum who are usually all about freedom would appreciate more freedom on their devices.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I remember when technology was actually made by enthusiasts for enthusiasts. It's sad seeing so many people here paralyzed by fear begging Apple to protect them from the big scary world that Apple tells them is out there.

Correct.

It used to be that technology could be the "bicycle for the mind" (referencing the Mac at the time, but computers in general)

Now too many are just living in constant fear and paranoia...to the point that it clouds the ability to be open to the possible.

 

[Radeon85]

They don't really care about security or privacy as long as they get their cut
Apple is sort of a digital mob boss

And ultimately this is what it comes down to, sod all to do with privacy and protection considering the dodgy apps on the official store, they just want money and an alternative store cuts them out.

 

[PortoMavericks]

Phil Schiller, Captain America of privacy.

 

[CarAnalogy]

They don't really care about security or privacy as long as they get their cut
Apple is sort of a digital mob boss

All the platform vendors are digital mob bosses at this point. This is why Linux exists, people saw this coming in the 90s.

To be fair I think Apple does care about both security and privacy but they also very much care about getting their cut.

This is why this ”services” push is so bad for them as a company. This is exactly what they were not supposed to be. Google has succeeded in turning everyone into an imitation of themselves, in many ways.

Ad sales and App Store commissions are incentives that are counter to many of the other incentives and goals of the company. And it seems that instead of realizing this and trying to find good faith ways to deal with it, they’re just digging their heels in even harder.