3rd party app stores are screaming porn, scam and low quality apps to me. I‘d stick with the Apple app store.

I wonder what this would do to app quality. How much does Apple currently check in the App Store quality checks (manual or automated) to make sure certain misuse of apis is avoided?

Next to that, I would personally prefer not to use multiple apps to search for exclusives, or different versions of apps. Streaming video apps (Netflix, Disney, Apple, prime, etc), and gaming stores (steam, epic, ea, etc.) provide a really bad experience in terms of consistency, search, and quality expectations.

This is made painfully clear in aggregator apps like the TV app, which does not other apps well, and GeForce now, which provides an (imho) dreadful UX with coupling games from stores, looking for discounts, and launching games. You could argue that this is a minor inconvenience, but for me it’s a big annoyance.

Best case for me is that Apple allows certain app categories in the App Store that it now blocks (game streaming), and reduces fees. Regarding the latter, I think fees are ok, in proportion, as Apple does give you access and tools (!) to reach millions of devices with little effort.

I hope we can avoid a Frankenstein experience, and also make sure we get quality guarantees.

That’s good news for iPhone hope it’s world wide and allows me to install any non approved app I want. If so I would switch to iPhone

Awesome. I’m a big fan of Apple’s ecosystem, if it had some competition, it would be even better.

It’s kinda shameful they have to be strong armed by a government to not rip off their customers.

What I’m really curious about is whether if iOS users’ higher tendency to pay for apps which translates into higher quality apps will apply to other app stores or not.

I’m also curious about what Apple is going to do about APIs and practices that are accessible during development/testing but are immediately rejected by Apple during the review process. Are they going to remove such things at API level or are they going to “laissez-faire” other app stores?

It might even be a good idea for Apple to do that, which would immediately make 3rd party app stores gain reputation for being insecure consumer-unfriendly.

So we can now expect third party stores on the games consoles too, right?

So when will I be able to get the PlayStation App Store on my Nintendo Switch?

I want to play Xbox games on my smart fridge too

Big W

All i care about is supporting sideloaded apps + notifications. Hope it comes before the year ends.

Opening up iOS to more things can’t be a bad thing can it? It would be nice to have other choices instead of being locked into what Apple wants.

Yes plz

Ew.

Get ready for lower App Store prices overall, the proliferation of new iPhone app stores (Amazon, Microsoft, and some 3rd parties), and a spawning of some really garbage apps and malware.

Apple may be monopolizing, but they have the strictest standards for app approval. This means iOS apps which don’t update to adopt new iOS look/feel and APIs stop getting approved. With a 3rd party app store, we’ll start to see apps that look ‘old’ because Apple can’t reject them from a 3rd party app store. And of course, we’ll see new malware that Apple also can no longer reject.

Still, I expect Apple to make it glaringly obvious to users that non-Apple apps are sketchy (probably a warning box every time they are launched) and it will eventually look a lot like the current situation on Android.

They are inevitable but I do wonder how they would work. I’m sure Apple will have nothing to do with them other than allowing a store onto their platform.

Stores need to be run which cost time and money. Who would you be buying an app from; I suspect it won’t be Apple so good luck if you have a complaint or getting your money back or it screws your device… Devs will have to handle and manage secure payments systems - extra cost. Devs will have to pay the store for being included and managed in it.

Companies like Epic and dating apps were only interested in grasping yet more money from customers with fewer protections