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We just saw Google agree to give the Treasury some sort of compensation no one understands for the Tik Tok deal. I don't want to find out what happens when Trump demands Apple remove the ACLU app or he'll raise tariffs on key iPhone components. This is why we need sideloading.
We've seen all the necessary parts to a bigger antitrust concern than the 30%:
1. Apple has displayed that they will back down to a nation's request with the removal of the HK protest app.
2. We have seen that our own government is not above bullying tech companies.
1. Apple has displayed that they will back down to a nation's request with the removal of the HK protest app.
2. We have seen that our own government is not above bullying tech companies.
We need to create systems that have a fallback when human and corporate morality inevitably fall short. A system that relies on Apple always making the right or moral decision is setting us up for failure.
You can always just use the web isn't sufficient when there are features that aren't web accessible, and when Apple *also controls the only allowed web engine*.
It's also not a great look to tell people fighting for their freedom to just reimplement their app in React because the App Store no longer has their back. I think they've got bigger things on their mind and you should feel honored they wrote it for iOS in the first place.
The sideloading is bad for users argument is silly -- it doesn't have to be easy to sideload, it just needs to be possible as a failsafe. I promise my mom won't dig into Settings to turn it on.
I get it, none of us expected these neat technological toys to possibly become life-or-death when we originally made them. Twitter is having to reconcile with this, but so should Apple.
The truth is that the iPhone has become a fundamental component of people's lives, and rising up to that occasion matters more than the remote possibility that someone might sell something on there without giving Apple their cut.
Microsoft* as kindly pointed out by @smfr
