This has been my feeling for years, and why I think it'd probably be in Apple's interest to let people sideload apps. They could still require them to be signed

This has been my feeling for years, and why I think it'd probably be in Apple's interest to let people sideload apps. They could still require them to be signed, but otherwise be hands-off. The vast majority of users wouldn't go through whatever hoops were necessary to set that up -- even if it's just the single hoop of flipping an "allow non-App Store apps" switch in Settings -- but making it possible to do that gets them out of a lot of the regulatory imbroglio they've been heading toward. (I also can't help but feel it's necessary in the long run if they're serious about the iPad in particular being a general purpose computing device rather than an application console.)