Evolving AltStore PAL
In April of last year, we launched AltStore PAL in the European Union as one of the first official alternative app marketplaces on iOS thanks to the Digital Markets Act. We launched with just 2 apps — my Nintendo emulator Delta and clipboard manager Clip — yet Apple immediately changed their App Store rules to allow emulators worldwide for the first time ever.
[…]
By far our number one request, we’re planning to launch AltStore PAL in more countries later this year in response to various regulatory changes around the world. Specifically, we plan to launch in Japan, Brazil, and Australia before the end of the year, with the UK to follow in 2026.
[…]
Using ActivityPub, we plan to federate apps, app updates, and news alerts from AltStore to the open social web. Each AltStore source will receive its own ActivityPub account, which can then be followed by any other open social web account. You’ll be able to like, boost, and reply to everything, and most importantly all these interactions will appear natively in AltStore.
[…]
Pace Capital is investing $6 million USD in AltStore in exchange for 15% equity. We will use this money to hire a few employees and build out a team, giving us the necessary bandwidth to finalize Fediverse integration and expand AltStore worldwide, while also releasing betas and app updates on a more regular basis.
[…]
Alternative app marketplaces are needed more than ever now, with new reasons for them popping up every week. If there’s one constant though, it’s that Apple simply cannot be trusted to be the sole distributor of apps on the iOS platform.
Even with app marketplaces, though, Apple still controls distribution through code signing and notarization. There is no equivalent of the Mac’s Gatekeeper override.
Previously:
- Lessons From San Bernardino and ICEBlock
- ICEBlock Removed From the App Store
- Google to Require Developer Verification for Android Sideloading
- Slow TestFlight Beta App Review
- AltStore PAL 2.2
- EU iOS Envy
- Sequoia Removes Gatekeeper Contextual Menu Override
- Delta’s 10-Year Journey to the Top of the App Store
- iOS Notarization’s Human Review
1 Comment RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
We've of course talked about this many times, but the phrase "cannot be trusted to be the sole distributor of apps on the iOS platform" is an interesting way to say it. I mean they did create the platform. Nobody has to "trust" them to do it, they de facto do it.
I suppose the true market answer would be to use an alternative if their terms are unacceptable, but of course the only practical alternative is an equal giant with effectively the same rules. Which makes it a cartel since they work together to prevent any competition to themselves, since they can't wipe each other out.
Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think we have even a theoretical solution to the cartel problem. How do you actually interfere with an entirely created construct like software distribution? It's not even something like oil or drugs where there's even a theoretical possibility of natural market correction by competing via sourcing and distribution or even acquisition. You can't just make another phone platform with all the apps. We're stuck with this system forever until the entire way we use technology fundamentally changes.
I agree something has to change but I don't think anyone knows how to actually do it. Europe is trying with the DMA but it's too vague and has the usual problem that the regulators don't understand the technology well enough to truly make specific, reasonable, effective policies.
