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App store being exclusive to Apple is the main reason why people are buying these devices. Without that lock, Apple wouldn’t be able to sell $500 worth of hard

App store being exclusive to Apple is the main reason why people are buying these devices. Without that lock, Apple wouldn’t be able to sell $500 worth of hardware for $1500, in huge quantities: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-much-does-it-cost-to-make-iphone/ https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/how-much-does-it-cost-t...

jojobas 6y ago
Very few apps are ios-exclusive. Do you think that the ability to use other stores would make iphones less valuable for their users?
- Const-me 6y ago
  > Very few apps are ios-exclusive Many cross-platform apps work better on iOS, due to lack of fragmentation. > Do you think that the ability to use other stores would make iphones less valuable for their users? Initially, I answered to this: “Hardware/OS vendors should not be allowed to include app stores out of the box, much less prevent sideloading.” Now on your new question, yes, I think this may actually happen, here’s how. If such cross-platform third-party store would be allowed, and would gain traction, many developers gonna stop writing native iOS apps for 2 reasons: development/porting is expensive, and Apple taking their cut from sales. Apple’s app store has rather strict policies about software quality in general, malware, user’s personal data choices, even battery use (years ago I’ve developed for iOS on my day job). Apple won’t be able to enforce equivalent policies for other stores. For one they can’t technically do that. Even if they could, they are not going to get paid for moderating apps on other stores. Currently, they collect their cut from sales, and collect money from developers for developer program membership. These 2 sources of income pay for these reviews. Therefore, quality of apps available on iOS is going to decline. Along with security: it’s very hard to design a secure system where users are allowed to run arbitrary native code, the only somewhat reliable way is hardware-assisted hypervisor. Being able to enforce policies by reviewing and rejecting apps helps a lot with that, among other things these policies forbid usage of private APIs or running downloaded code.

jojobas 6y ago

Very few apps are ios-exclusive. Do you think that the ability to use other stores would make iphones less valuable for their users?

Const-me 6y ago
> Very few apps are ios-exclusive Many cross-platform apps work better on iOS, due to lack of fragmentation. > Do you think that the ability to use other stores would make iphones less valuable for their users? Initially, I answered to this: “Hardware/OS vendors should not be allowed to include app stores out of the box, much less prevent sideloading.” Now on your new question, yes, I think this may actually happen, here’s how. If such cross-platform third-party store would be allowed, and would gain traction, many developers gonna stop writing native iOS apps for 2 reasons: development/porting is expensive, and Apple taking their cut from sales. Apple’s app store has rather strict policies about software quality in general, malware, user’s personal data choices, even battery use (years ago I’ve developed for iOS on my day job). Apple won’t be able to enforce equivalent policies for other stores. For one they can’t technically do that. Even if they could, they are not going to get paid for moderating apps on other stores. Currently, they collect their cut from sales, and collect money from developers for developer program membership. These 2 sources of income pay for these reviews. Therefore, quality of apps available on iOS is going to decline. Along with security: it’s very hard to design a secure system where users are allowed to run arbitrary native code, the only somewhat reliable way is hardware-assisted hypervisor. Being able to enforce policies by reviewing and rejecting apps helps a lot with that, among other things these policies forbid usage of private APIs or running downloaded code.