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The actual reason was that Apple wants to encourage native development instead of targeting some other platform and then emulating or simulating that on iOS. A

by kccqzy 3y ago

The actual reason was that Apple wants to encourage native development instead of targeting some other platform and then emulating or simulating that on iOS. At one point they even required all iOS apps to be written in only C, C++, Objective-C, Objective-C++, JavaScript and no other languages. They walked that back almost immediately.

withinboredom 3y ago
I vaguely remember this as well, but that wasn't the only reason. The other reason was security/ability to review apps. If an app can run arbitrary code, then they don't know if it contains a virus or something else to escape the sandbox. Or something like that. This was all quite a long time ago and Google isn't being super helpful in searching for old posts.
- ben_w 3y ago
  That rings a bell for me too, FWIW.
- simion314 3y ago
  I bet it is not about the viruses, Apple does a bad job at catching malware. They are very concerned if a developer might show some link that would educate an apple user that they can get discounts outside the App Store so it is clear that all was for the money. If you have an emulator and then say get some old game from Gog and play it then Apple does not get their 15-30% cut, they want you to buy a game from their store instead.
  - withinboredom 3y ago
    Oh, no doubt this is ALL about money. I was just recalling the "official" reason.
  - NekkoDroid 3y ago
    > They are very concerned if a developer might show some link that would educate an apple user that they can get discounts outside the App Store I recently had a friend ask if I wanna join their YT Premium Family plan and they said it would be like 6 euro for me. Ended up asking how much they are paying as a whole and it was 32 per month and I immediatly knew that it was paid for on an iPad/iPhone, cuz even if you just go on the website on one of the devices it will show you the actual price of 24 euro.
- Mathnerd314 3y ago
  Here is an example removal (2021): https://www.imore.com/apple-going-remove-idos-2-emulator-app-store-get-it-while-you-can https://www.imore.com/apple-going-remove-idos-2-emulator-app... It seems that they considered loading game images as "running executable code". So in particular what was banned was running code downloaded remotely, meaning any emulator that could download game images from the web or load game images from the filesystem was banned.
talldayo 3y ago
Well that's the part that sorta confuses me. There were a lot of high-quality emulators that were native to iOS, and sideloading them was the only way to use it. There was also the same bog-standard port of Retroarch et. al., but developers really did put effort into making high quality, even Open Source, iOS-native emulation software. The sinister side of me wants to say that stopping emulation forces more users down the IAP/microtransaction feedback loop in order to entertain themselves. The rational side of me wants to say that Yoshi's Cookie isn't the Fortnite killer, but the whole thing feels icky to me nevertheless.
jwells89 3y ago
I think they wanted to somewhat replicate what they had on macOS, where the best and most popular apps were those built by indie/boutique dev houses that cared specifically about building great iOS apps. Lowest common denominator apps that treated iOS as a generic mobile target (and thus, ignoring platform conventions and such) were undesired. I’m not sure that ever could’ve happened given the popularity of iOS, though. Companies like Panic and Omni Group don’t have the sort of firepower it takes to compete against the sheer amount of money poured into marketing by Facebook, Google, VC-backed startups, etc.

by kccqzy 3y ago

withinboredom 3y ago

I vaguely remember this as well, but that wasn't the only reason. The other reason was security/ability to review apps. If an app can run arbitrary code, then they don't know if it contains a virus or something else to escape the sandbox. Or something like that. This was all quite a long time ago and Google isn't being super helpful in searching for old posts.

ben_w 3y ago
That rings a bell for me too, FWIW.
simion314 3y ago
I bet it is not about the viruses, Apple does a bad job at catching malware. They are very concerned if a developer might show some link that would educate an apple user that they can get discounts outside the App Store so it is clear that all was for the money. If you have an emulator and then say get some old game from Gog and play it then Apple does not get their 15-30% cut, they want you to buy a game from their store instead.
- withinboredom 3y ago
  Oh, no doubt this is ALL about money. I was just recalling the "official" reason.
- NekkoDroid 3y ago
  > They are very concerned if a developer might show some link that would educate an apple user that they can get discounts outside the App Store I recently had a friend ask if I wanna join their YT Premium Family plan and they said it would be like 6 euro for me. Ended up asking how much they are paying as a whole and it was 32 per month and I immediatly knew that it was paid for on an iPad/iPhone, cuz even if you just go on the website on one of the devices it will show you the actual price of 24 euro.
Mathnerd314 3y ago
Here is an example removal (2021): https://www.imore.com/apple-going-remove-idos-2-emulator-app-store-get-it-while-you-can https://www.imore.com/apple-going-remove-idos-2-emulator-app... It seems that they considered loading game images as "running executable code". So in particular what was banned was running code downloaded remotely, meaning any emulator that could download game images from the web or load game images from the filesystem was banned.

talldayo 3y ago

Well that's the part that sorta confuses me. There were a lot of high-quality emulators that were native to iOS, and sideloading them was the only way to use it. There was also the same bog-standard port of Retroarch et. al., but developers really did put effort into making high quality, even Open Source, iOS-native emulation software. The sinister side of me wants to say that stopping emulation forces more users down the IAP/microtransaction feedback loop in order to entertain themselves. The rational side of me wants to say that Yoshi's Cookie isn't the Fortnite killer, but the whole thing feels icky to me nevertheless.

jwells89 3y ago

I think they wanted to somewhat replicate what they had on macOS, where the best and most popular apps were those built by indie/boutique dev houses that cared specifically about building great iOS apps. Lowest common denominator apps that treated iOS as a generic mobile target (and thus, ignoring platform conventions and such) were undesired. I’m not sure that ever could’ve happened given the popularity of iOS, though. Companies like Panic and Omni Group don’t have the sort of firepower it takes to compete against the sheer amount of money poured into marketing by Facebook, Google, VC-backed startups, etc.