Retro emulation on smartphones has long been exclusive to Android devices, due to Apple’s somewhat stricter policies on which apps can and cannot be distributed on the App Store.
However, that is about to change; Apple has just announced that retro emulators will be allowed on the iPhone – although such apps must still comply with “all applicable laws”, so don’t expect such emulators to come with games pre-installed.
The move appears to be intended to counter the fact that iPhone users in the European Union can now use third-party app stores on their devices thanks to a recent legal ruling. Apple, it seems, wants to give its customers a chance to try a wider range of apps on the official App Store and thus avoid the trouble of searching elsewhere. We should note that Apple’s policy change is not limited to Europe; it is a global agreement.
It remains to be seen which emulators will make the jump to the iPhone, but we can imagine that any developer who already has a successful emulator on Android will port them to Apple’s phone.
Previously, iPhone users who wanted to emulate retro games on their devices had to jailbreak, a process that Apple frowns upon.