New U.S. Antitrust Bill Would Require Apple and Google to Allow Third-Party App Stores and Sideloading

[hasanahmad]

Apple's proposal: yes, we will allow sideloading of apps. As soon as you don't use our App store exclusively, it will be disable as will iPhone features such as Face ID. Thus secure enclave will be disabled as well. Then Apple will decrypt your phone.

if you want end to end encryption, use only Apple App store.


Sounds like an acceptable solution right?

User will have a choice between
An Apple Walled garden iPhone and a Truely open iPhone for both users and hackers.

When you download an alternative store you will give up the right to sue apple if your data is compromised should be in the user agreement


I find that an acceptable solution. No?

 

[azentropy]

Isn't iOS only like 25% marketshare worldwide?

Mobile OS market share worldwide 2009-2025| Statista

Android maintained its position as the leading mobile operating system worldwide in the first quarter of 2025 with a market share of about 71.88 percent.

www.statista.com

Only? . That is 3-4x higher than the worldwide PC marketshare of Macs.

Also the mobile market is now about 5-7 times the PC market. So 25% of the worldwide marketshare (and of course much higher in some key markets) now exceeds the number of windows PCs.

 

[Nuno Lopes]

Something like this will come. Been warning the dystopian‘s that it would. Apple had plenty and and still has time to fix the App Store policies … to stop or at least delay this indefinitely.

Don’t think it would be necessary to go to such an extreme. Apple could just deploy a competitive tiered pricing based on what developers need to use and what they do not. Some would need to entire package including Apple Store driven marketing, payment and billing … others would just simply need app hosting and security review … But this is such a fine business model measure that regulators cannot dictate … its up to Apple and Google’s … when regulators act only have cannon balls a their disposal.

But hey …wallmartian sophists …

 

[nvmls]

You do not quite get it.

Look at the App store on macOS. Hardly anything there.

So you must be a gatekeeper on multiple stores, download sites, etc.

This will be iPhone…

macOS > iOS

 

[carrrrrlos]

Was this legislation started by consumers who believed Apple was price gouging, overcharging, or in some way behaving in a monopolistic style - or by developers who wanted more profits? This Bill will obviously pass in some form or another because there will be some form of additional taxation that will be written into it - just look at any one of your utilities, cellular plans, etc. Taxes, that’s all they want, and they are currently missing out on a massive amount from the App stores from both Google and Apple.

 

[Scott6666]

Dang Democrats. Let the market decide. You want chaos go to Android.

 

[Mebsat]

Apple's proposal: yes, we will allow sideloading of apps. As soon as you don't use our App store exclusively, it will be disable as will iPhone features such as Face ID. Thus secure enclave will be disabled as well. Then Apple will decrypt your phone.

if you want end to end encryption, use only Apple App store.


Sounds like an acceptable solution right?

User will have a choice between
An Apple Walled garden iPhone and a Truely open iPhone for both users and hackers.

When you download an alternative store you will give up the right to sue apple if your data is compromised should be in the user agreement


I find that an acceptable solution. No?

Simpler: if you want to write an application generated with everything provided by Xcode, you should compile for App Store.

If you want to host your own mobile app store, develop using the new IDE Xcode Lite, that only includes basic windowing APIs, UITouch, etc.

Easy to create developer certificates that enforce this.

 

[hans1972]

Controversial, but I don't see how formally ending Apple's monopoly over in-app purchase revenue would harm consumers. They still have a choice to use Apple's system.

If the app you want is in another store and not in the App Store, you would have to install, configure and register with that store before buying. Or not get the app.

Today I don't need to make that choice.

 

[DocMultimedia]

as a consumer, I love this. As a former Genius Bar employee... I pity my old coworkers haha. God, that is going to be a crap-show 😅

Very good point. 'Hi, My iPhone has been hijacked after I downloaded an app from youaretoast.com that said it timed my breakfast, can you fix it.'

'No.'

 

[amartinez1660]

Pirates rejoice!

It's not a winning situation for Apple Developers. The Torrent sites will be loaded with apps that can be installed without having to jailbreak your device.

If you let politicians control Technology, we will have total chaos.

Could I, as an hypothetical app developer, have freedom of choice for how my app gets distributed too? I.e “I want my yet another calculator app to not be sideload-able, only via the AppStore it can be installed and nothing else”.
Or “family sharing, xKit A and CloudKit B only supported if using the AppStore version”?
Curious how much arm bending is going to be happening with these bills.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Very good point. 'Hi, My iPhone has been hijacked after I downloaded an app from youaretoast.com that said it timed my breakfast, can you fix it.'

'No.'

Do they deal with those issues on Macs right now?

 

[hasanahmad]

Hubris of developers is really something. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. The moment piratebay will see a spike in iOS app traffic , they will start whining about their financial troubles due to users not BUYING their software.

Apple will simply say: If you want to use xCode, use our App store. Use an alternative source for apps and you give up right to sue Apple.

oh and because the phone is not decrypted due to sideloading, Apple will expand CSAM scanning to all your content not just icloud

 

[Remy149]

All of you people arguing against this…

Do you get everything on your Mac only from the Mac App Store?

If I could I would but the mac AppStore is almost as bare as windows

 

[djphat2000]

What % of Google’s revenue comes from the Play store?

given they don’t make the hardware I can see this having a bigger impact on Google.

For us Apple customers wont apple just try and recoup the investment elsewhere? Developer SDK costs etc which will push up app prices.

overall I’m disappointed with this whole thing. If government wants to interfere I’d rather they focused on the addictive nature of apps that offer “lootboxes” or digital good that are basically worthless.

Apple WILL most certainly recoup their losses elsewhere. And I agree with your pick of the Dev SDK. Immediately that price goes up 1000% percent or moves to a monthly subscription. Or both!

Another thought on how to solve this would be for Apple to create 2 iOS's. One that is as it is today. And one that has the walls taken down. And during initial setup of your device. You pick which world you want to be in. Which will have a LOT of disclaimers stating how unsafe this is etc. Apple will still charge developers way more for access in this manner. Since they lose revenue. And in the end, Apple makes even MORE money than before. LOL

 

[Remy149]

Hubris of developers is really something. Don't bite the hand that feeds you. The moment piratebay will see a spike in iOS app traffic , they will start whining about their financial troubles due to users not BUYING their software.

Apple will simply say: If you want to use xCode, use our App store. Use an alternative source for apps and you give up right to sue Apple.

oh and because the phone is not decrypted due to sideloading, Apple will expand CSAM scanning to all your content not just icloud

If this does create an uptick and piracy there will either be more subscription based apps or apps will get more expensive. People like bringing up the Mac but most casual users don’t install many apps on their computers outside of work or school needs

 

[visualseed]

“Bipartisan“ does not mean it has enough votes to pass. This is probably more of an invitation for more lobbyists to visit Capitol Hill than a realistic bill.

 

[Kierkegaarden]

“Predatory abuse”? “Deeply offensive on so many levels”? Are we talking about apps or just exercising skills at making inane hyperbolic statements?

 

[tgwaste]

Controversial, but I don't see how formally ending Apple's monopoly over in-app purchase revenue would harm consumers. They still have a choice to use Apple's system.

Are you kidding? If this passes then Apple will lose money from the App ecosystem. Apple is the greediest company to ever exist in all of human history. The prices for everything else they sell will increase to regain this money.

Having said that. I am for ending Apples obvious monopoly.

 

[tgwaste]

Dang Democrats. Let the market decide. You want chaos go to Android.

Thats exactly what we want. We want to be able to DECIDE. If this happens you are free to NOT use sideloaded apps or 3rd party stores.

 

[turbineseaplane]

If I could I would but the mac AppStore is almost as bare as windows

Because Apple doesn't have an offering that's compelling to developers.

The lack of things in the Mac App Store is because Apple is too draconian and wants too much of a cut.
That's not an argument for "forcing Apple as the only option"

It actually just highlights how much that current situation is likely holding back the potential on iOS.

 

[seek3r]

Pirates rejoice!

It's not a winning situation for Apple Developers. The Torrent sites will be loaded with apps that can be installed without having to jailbreak your device.

If you let politicians control Technology, we will have total chaos.

I hate to break this to you but anything popular enough to crack probably has a cracked version out there already, the people who are going to go through the trouble of pirating are the same people who already go through the trouble of pirating

And you get what they're requiring here is basically exactly what anyone can do on a mac now, right?

This isn't politicians controlling technology, it's politicians breaking monopolies on access on popular platforms in the public's best interest. This is the kind of thing that we literally have government for

 

[Remy149]

How is Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo getting a cut if I buy the game pre-owned through 3rd party stores like GameStop, eBay, Facebook Marketplace, etc.?

They made a profit of the sale of it when it was a new product. Their push to digital is literally to cut off the used game market. In the united states GameStop is the only brick and mortar retailer that actually has a robust used games market and they might not be around to much longer in the future.

 

[hasanahmad]

Are you kidding? If this passes then Apple will lose money from the App ecosystem. Apple is the greediest company to ever exist in all of human history. The prices for everything else they sell will increase to regain this money.

Having said that. I am for ending Apples obvious monopoly.

What monopoly?

#2 of 2 App stores in Mobile Market
#5 in smartphone sales


What monopoly?

 

[mistasopz]

Cool. Apple will now have to hire even more people to man their Genius Bars when people bring in malware laden iPhones and go "I sideloaded this game...but it mess it up with Moose porn malware...fix it..."

Apply for a job now, they're going to need it!

It's not going to be that complicated. If you side load apps then sorry you're on your own. Android has a huge disclaimer if you want to enable side loading. It's not much different than people installing random programs on macos.

 

[turbineseaplane]

If you let politicians control Technology, we will have total chaos.

You mean like letting their agencies work with Apple to install data scanning software right on your device?