In a move that could best be described as “we did it because our lawyers said so,” Apple will finally allow developers to offer alternative app stores for iPhones in the European Union starting March 2024, which naturally has nothing to do with the region’s Digital Markets Act but everything to do with it. Yes, the company famous for innovation has just “innovated” its way to begrudgingly complying with EU law. Glorious.
The update to iOS 17.4, which Apple only casually mentioned in a developer blog post and not, say, during a keynote draped in spotlights and synth music, brings sweeping changes that Tim Cook probably had to approve while sighing dramatically. This rare show of openness will allow EU iPhone users to download apps from third-party marketplaces for the first time ever, assuming of course that those apps manage to survive Apple’s gauntlet of “not our store, not our problem, but still kind of our problem.”
Developers will now be able to choose between Apple’s App Store taxation and a new “Core Technology Fee,” which charges 50 euro cents per download annually for apps that surpass one million downloads. Which is Apple-speak for “you can skip the toll booth but the meter starts running once you hit traffic.”
And just in case anyone tries to enjoy this new freedom too much, users will be greeted with security pop-ups every time they attempt to install an app from outside the App Store, indistinguishable from the kind of alerts that usually accompany malware warnings or the decision to reinstall Facebook. Apple insists these are necessary to keep users safe rather than, say, quietly guilt-tripping them back into the safety of Cupertino’s walled garden.
Epic Games, never one to pass up a good Apple squabble, has already announced plans to bring its own app store to iPhones in the EU, undoubtedly plotting to sneak Fortnite back onto devices via the side entrance. In what can only be described as a pot-meets-kettle moment, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney accused Apple of anticompetitive behavior while also maneuvering to funnel gamers into his own digital storefront where, funnily enough, he gets to play app sheriff instead.
All of this, of course, is only happening in the EU because regulators there decided smartphones shouldn’t behave like medieval kingdoms, complete with extortionate taxes and decrees from a digital monarch. Outside Europe, it remains business as usual, which in Apple’s case means business that earns about $80 billion a year from the App Store and presumably a great deal of muttering about Brussels under the breath.
Apple may have opened the door, but only after installing six locks, a retina scanner and an alarm that goes off if you don’t tip on the way out.