LMAO FUCK NO
This is what I’ve been saying the whole time. If we open up third party app stores, get ready for the meta store to be the exclusive place to download instagram and the Microsoft store the exclusive place to get outlook/teams, both pumped full of tracking and junk that would have never been approved by Apple, diluting the iPhone experience for many.
android has allowed 3rd party app stores since day 1 so this is going to be an issue on the iPhone how?
Because google lets these players put apps in their store already chock full of all the tracking and junk they want. They know if they didn’t, they would open their own store and google would loose their cut.
I definitely agree that they will try, but I’m sure the average FB/Insta/Threads user won’t go through the process of installing a third party store just for those apps, particularly when they’re already available on the App Store. With something like Fortnite that’s not available I could see it. But with Meta products I doubt it, particularly with the older, less tech savvy crowd that tends to use them.
I don’t think most end users are smart enough to figure out how to download alternative app stores so I don’t think that companies are going to lock themselves in to only offering their apps on a single storefront.
I am hoping this results in storefronts that offer exclusively open source and other projects that might not jive with Apple policies such as emulators or Hypervisors.
That being said I’m not downloading anything from the MS store app
I’m almost certain the corporate internet will use this opportunity to further enshitify their platforms. But it will also give end-users more powerful tools to resist that enshitification.
In the end I think it’s better to give users more freedom to protect themselves. Not to put everything on a benevolent corporate daddy to protect the end-user.
Perhaps this is the reason enshitifacation wasn’t a thing until we were put into these locked down devices?
My first request for a 3rd party App Store would be for one that allows you to filter out anything with subscription models from results.
Oh, wait.
The only good thing about the walled garden was it kept terrible ideas like this from being possible
Get your popcorn, because this train wreck is going to be glorious.
