How can they? If you can sideload they have no way to enforce this.

“Not via the App Store” != “Without Apple Approval”

Side loading will likely still require a business agreement with Apple and “App Review” to get a cert that allows your app to run.

That would really defeat the whole purpose... I'm sure this is not the intention of this law.

However it is indeed possible that Apple would weasel such a requirement through the loopholes, yes.

The more they try to block this, the heavier the regulations are going to be on them.

At some point Apple might see itself being split apart because of its constant and well documented abuse of it's status in the market.

What market abuse? And what do you split up? Apple is a hardware company, all the software they write is purely to make the hardware they sell attractive to consumers.

Apple is now a services company: https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/20/18273179/apple-icloud-itu...

> all the software they write is purely to make the hardware they sell attractive to consumers.

This view of Apple as a pure-platform company does not comport with reality

Into what and what, exactly?

You could imagine the hardware manufacturing/os component of apple being split from the services part of apple.

Who should pay for the cost of development then? Apple has always been very clear, the store commission is for use of their IP. Any other store can undercut apple because they don’t have to pay any of the development costs for the platform.

There is no weaseling, it is very simple: the commission covers the licensing. The alternative is saying that apple must develop software, give it away for free, then let random stores make a profit selling software that they contributed nothing to.

It is exactly equivalent to the EU saying that a company should be free to use GPL software however they like, including selling at a profit, without providing the sources.

I agree. Expect Apple to come up with some kind of contingency plan, so they can maximize profits and control, at the expense of their users.

If not the stores themselves, then presumably the apps will have to pay.

I’d also hope that the store are required to enforce the same security protections as the main App Store.

I don’t want buying an app to now come with the risk of uncancellable subscriptions, gross invasion of privacy, malware, etc

Presumably, they could just treat iOS like macOS, where there already is a notarization system that covers apps distributed outside of the Mac App store.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizin...

Also, people forget that iOS itself has many security protections built into the platform itself that go beyond App Store review.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30199125

Fascinating read, especially https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/09/for-t...