> These days, even those options are gone.
On Android, you can distribute, download, and install .apk files outside of the Play Store [1]. There's also an app called f-droid [2] which acts as a 'store' for some open source apps.
[1] https://developer.android.com/distribute/marketing-tools/alt... [2] https://f-droid.org/en/
There's also Epic Games who distribute Fortnite through their own Android app store, and it sounds like that's worked out for them. Amazon AppStore can be installed on Android devices, and Samsung has their own app store too.
There are even big companies distributing Android apps directly via downloaded APK - gambling apps aren't allowed on Google Play, but Sportsbet in Australia still did a splashy TV campaign for their Android app APK:
These days, even those options are gone. You can’t sell it or install it in any normal way if the platform vendor doesn’t like it. You will even need to “notarize” side installs (which will kill truly free software because no one should need $99/year to distribute what used to be free).
And the only thing worse than all the rules is the brutal inconsistency of it all. Had this person lucked into one of Apple’s “meh, sounds fine, Approved!” reviewers, there would have been no rejection and no blog post. It is really a crap shoot, where lots of crap gets into the store too.