If the requirements are the same as for iPhones, this change is entirely inconsequential, because Apple can just add so many hurdles to sideloading to make this infeasible.
Bored open source devs with a deep hatred for apple: “Challenge accepted”
I remember hearing something about requiring a multi million dollar deposit or something that made it infeasible for all but the largest of tech companies.
First App Store launched.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/first-third-party-ios-app-store-launches-in-europe
By all means. After Apple has painted themselves in a corner, when the legislation has been loophole proofed, that’s when Apple gets hit in the face with the Brussels effect - like a big, floppy, dong slapped across Steve Apple’s mouth in every country out there.
I’ll do a dance for every country. I’ll do a shimmy for Botswana, a conga for Japan, a shake for Sebia, etc, etc.
Slap! Other cheek. Slayap! Other cheek! And so on and so forth.
Hopefully.
Loophole-proofing means doing a revision to the DMA, which means that they need to go through all of the stages again. It took three years on the first round, and they’re probably going to need a few more revisions to get all of the holes fixed.
There is no loophole though.
Even if there was, the EU runs on civil law, not common law, which means the intent of the law trumps the wording, and there is no emphasis on precedents. So if an EU judge decides that Apple is fucking around trying to skirt the law, there is no change required to the law to slap them down.
Such is writing policy. Mayhaps it needs to be reformed down the line as well.
I don’t see why they wouldn’t be. iPadOS is still basically iOS Double Wide.
The rules will almost certainly be the iOS rules, but find and replace iOS for iPad.
Some think that the EU won’t accept the terms that Apple set up for alternate marketplaces, but it’ll probably take a decade or more until the EU can get off its ass.
The current implementation is what Apple (or Apple’s lawyers) think complies with the EU, this doesn’t mean the EU will fully accept this iteration. Apple is probably mainly playing with time here.
The problem is that fixing the loopholes most likely needs changes to the Act itself.
There is no real loophole though. Apple latched on to some part of the Act to justify what they are doing and play for time, while pretending the rest of the Act does not exist. The Act says in no uncertain terms that Apple is not allowed to self-preference - meaning that the alternative app stores must have as much exposure and placement on their platform as their own.
This is not the issue here. The problem is that everybody has to pay through their nose to get the priviledge to publish on an alternate marketplace or be an alternate marketplace.
I feel proud, as I contacted the EU commission regarding this specific issue
Genuinely, good work getting involved.
The reply, for those interested:
Many thanks for your enquiries dated 29 January 2024 and 10 February 2024 and your interest in the Digital Markets Act (“DMA”).
Your questions concern the Commission’s decision of 5 September 2023 designating Apple Inc. (“Apple”) as a gatekeeper under the DMA (see here for the public version of the decision).
The Commission’s designation decision is based on the evidence available to the Commission and submissions made by Apple taking into account the legal framework under the DMA. Regarding your questions, we note the following:
The Commission designated Apple’s operating system iOS. The Commission considers that Apple has provided sufficient facts and arguments to hold that iOS and iPadOS constitute each a distinct operating system core platform service, with only iOS meeting the quantitative thresholds for designation. However, the Commission has opened a market investigation in the qualitative designation of iPadOS. This investigation is currently ongoing. Should the Commission qualitatively designate iPadOS, it would be subject to the same obligations under the DMA as iOS. The Commission designated Apple’s software application store App Store, which is currently offered on different Apple devices running on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS as a single core platform service, irrespective of the device on which it is used. This is because, based on the evidence in the file, the App Store is used for the same common purpose from both an end user and a business user perspective across all devices on which it is available, namely to intermediate the distribution of apps.We hope this answers your questions. For any further information, including on the upcoming compliance phase, please visit the Commission’s DMA website under https://digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu/
Kind regards,
The DMA Team
The EU is one of the few institutions that are fighting the American corporations on our most basic freedoms. It’s the only one with real teeth.
This does nothing at all for those with a slightly older “unsupported” device. They should have made Apple apply the same fixes to the last few whole number releases.
For the entire line, that way I can use my totally functional iPad from 2010 that is a brick now because it cannot connect to the App Store.
For that a more reasonable ask is that they be required to unlock the devices so alternate firmware can be used.
👍
Just curious, what do you plan to use it for? I used to use my iPad Mini2 for zoom calls until recently, as zoom now needs iOS 10 or above.
Really I just wanna put Linux on it 🙈
I want to run unsigned apps on iPadOS, just like MacOS.
That said, regarding support for “slightly older” hardware. For all that Apple sucks at, they have usually been good about supporting older hardware. iPads have historically received 5 years of major releases, and then a couple years of security updates after that 5 years. The big exception being that very first iPad which was cut off after 3 years.
Moreover, software support for an old OS tends to become an issue after 2 or 3 years. Those of use who are developing iPad apps look at the traffic and start to deprecate support legacy OS versions that are in the low single digits.
Realistically, it’s about 7 to 8 years before I start to think about new hardware. That said, I still have an old ass 2013 iPad Air that I use for web browsing and messaging. Thing still works fine for that, but the third party apps are kind of stuck in 2020 / 2021 land.
Cool. Would be nice to see the same thing happen with games consoles as well.
Apple:
Opens iOS third party App Store rules.
Command+F
Replace “iOS” with “iPadOS”
Clicks “Replace All”
Honestly, I’d rather see the focus on making it so we can transfer purchases across app stores/devices.
So many people get stuck with one manufacture because they baught some apps over the years and don’t want to buy them again.
Even just making the stores talk to eachother would be enough. If I add my Google account to the Apple App Store, the app store can pull the list of purchased compatible software from the play store and sync it with my apple library.
Throw things like the xbox store and PlayStation store into the mix too. To be clear, that doesn’t mean exclusives or incompatible things needs to be compatible, thats silly. But if I buy somethibg like cross- platform like BG3 on the PlayStation, I want to transfer that to the Xbox or PC if I change consoles.
Businesses would avoid this by making their apps certain device only or using different companies to publish their apps on each platform to stop them from needing to allow cross platform ownership.
I mean… The apps are already single platform only. iOS apps are written in C#, Android apps are written in Java. They are not in any way compatible. If you want an app to work on both platforms you literally need to build it twice. It’s not twice as much work, but it’s nearly that. And if you only know how to develop in one of those platforms, it’s a lot more work to learn the other.
I think demanding something work on multiple platforms isn’t really a fair requirement, especially for smaller developers, and it would likely result in fewer apps existing at all.
Most developers won’t care unless they have their own store. If I’m sony and want my games to stay on PlayStation that fine.
If I’m a indi game dev (or one who isnt owned by MS yet), I want my game to be cross-platform to maximize potential sales, great. In 2 years, if one my PlayStation sales wants to jump to Xbox, they’re unlikely to re-buy my game again. They’ll just forget about it or pirate it, so I’m not really loosing a sale.
For a lot PC software, you buy a license from the developer directly and if they offer a cross-platform software, they dont care if you’re on windows or mac. They might care about how many activations you have, but that’s about it. There is no app store middle man.
The EU has found the cure for cancer
EU making iPadOS more useful
6 months? I wish they were harsher. Give them significant daily fines, they’ll get it done quick then.
6 months of time is effectively 24 hours in a corporation that large.
