Thoughts on the App Store
As a user, I love the App Store and would hate to see it become less important to iOS. In practice though, the current App Store situation has some significant problems which are getting harder and harder to ignore — several of which Congress’ antitrust report explicitly call out, such as requiring developers to implement in-app purchases or risk being thrown out of the App Store. I’ve wrestled with these two seemingly conflicting notions for a long time, but after running an alternative app store for the past year I’ve finally been able solidify my thoughts on what I believe is best for the platform.
So to celebrate AltStore’s first birthday, I decided to finally write up my thoughts on the App Store — including why I went through all this effort in the first place and why I believe sideloading is ultimately the right long-term solution for iOS.
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12 years on, it’s clear that while band-aids can be applied to the App Store Guidelines every few years or so to quell developer dissent, the underlying philosophy that Apple maintains sole discretion over which apps are allowed to run on its platform is showing its age.
Previously:
- House Report on Competition in Digital Markets
- App Review Should Be Stricter
- Outlining Complaints About the App Store
- AltStore
