Apple vs EU
Safety, privacy, security - the 3 important pillars on which the Internet should be residing.
But today Apple's plans, as per news articles (Apple Working to Add Support for Sideloading and Alternate App Stores in Europe - MacRumors ), in response to EU demands is quite shocking to me. Apple always strived to be a company which reflects those 3 items, stated above. But looks like they will not be present in future if Apple implements all the proposed changes.
Coming in details:-
Side loading of apps - It clearly states that apps can be installed without an app store - without the app review process. Generally, an app is reviewed by the app store team, before being pushed to the app store, to check whether user data is being collected without their consent and that data is being transferred to any other companies etc. Google's Android and its ecosystem is the prime example of that. In Android, lots of user data gets leaked through side loading of apps from unsecured sources. I personally worked as an Android apps developer for many years and know how data can be siphoned off without user consent. Later when I came to know about the Apple ecosystem, I personally fell in love with it's stringent policies for data collection and the way the data should be collected by the apps. These days even Google is trying to make Android OS a safe one step-by-step. It has yet to reach out to that place, but I am quite optimistic about that. And now if Apple starts allowing side loading of apps a huge user data will be at risk and. Here the question is whether Apple or the European Union will be responsible for the data loss that might happen. If it is up to Apple, then there will be a huge pressure mounting on them to figure out a way to handle those leaks and also stop them. There is an article on this - Why sideloaded apps and Is sideloading apps on Apple devices safe? (setapp.com) Another effect of this sideloading of apps is the revenue loss for the developers. Yes, we often find a lot of modified apps on the Internet to install so that we can skip that payment part. This is also a big issue which going to pop soon.
Alternative app stores - Yes in one way it is correct to say that the app store is a monopoly but in another way, it's the best thing. 1 question that pops up to me is "Do all the alternative app stores follow all the same rules regarding app reviews, data collection, security, privacy, etc ? ". Proposing alternative app stores on the same device just for 1 reason - app store commission - is not a good idea definitely.
Hope the European Commission and its members look at all aspects and propose a new solution by coordinating with the Apple technical team. Even though I don't work for Apple still I am a big fan of its app store and its stringent policies for data security, privacy, and safety. I feel I am in a position to speak about this considering my previous technical work experience. Do let me know if I missed out on some critical views/points.