As Apple’s famous walled garden continues to crumble, the company has made another concession to app developers. But it turns out that not everyone will benefit.
For more than 15 years, Apple has insisted that apps can only be downloaded to iPhones (and later iPads) from its own App Store, arguing that this is necessary to ensure users don’t accidentally install malware and scam software. (In practice, you can jailbreak an iPhone or iPad and download apps from other places, but the average user wouldn’t be willing to do that.) That’s changing, however, at least in Europe, as the EU’s Digital Markets Act forced Apple to supports alternative app stores since iOS 17.4.
In fact, Apple announced this week that developers will be able to skip the app store stage altogether and distribute apps directly to EU users from their websites. This option isn’t available yet, but it shouldn’t be long: Apple says it will appear in a software update later this spring.
“Web Distribution,” the company says, “will enable authorized developers to distribute their iOS apps to users in the EU directly from a developer-owned website. Apple will give authorized developers access to APIs that make it easy to distribute their apps from the web, integrate with system functions, back up and restore user apps, and more.”
The problem is that only a very small fraction of developers will qualify for this new privilege. Basically, they have to be big enough. As Apple explains in its web distribution guide, this is defined as “an app that had more than one million initial annual installs on iOS in the EU in the previous calendar year.” You also need to be registered in the EU (or have an EU subsidiary) and be a “member in good standing of the Apple Developer Program” for two continuous years…which ridiculously excludes Epic Games, as Isticha from Ars Technica points out.
Affecting such a small number of developers (Ars Technica quotes Apple as saying that only the annual install threshold will limit it to less than one percent) this might not seem like a big deal; Furthermore, it’s true that most users will continue to use the officially approved installation process, not least because Apple will surely tell them that it’s the safest way to get apps. But the concessions are important because they reduce Apple’s power to dictate terms. They will know that raising App Store fees too high or making App Store rules too strict will push more developers to alternative distribution methods. And it may be motivated to make the App Store experience easier to use (cough App Store search ads cough) to encourage users to keep using it.
In other words, this should be a good thing, even for those who end up not exercising the option. Although Apple would probably disagree.