They are doing no such thing. You don't have to use side loaded apps. If a company decides to only distribute from side loading, you can just not use their app. This is effectively what you are forcing on people who would prefer side loading, so it shouldn't be a problem for you.

This will be the biggest future exploit vector.

“Your phone is infected. Click here to load our antivirus”

Good thing even my mom learned to ignore that one a decade ago in windows.

There is absolutely zero chance Apple will allow it to be this simple.

If they make it like android’s dev mode, no one on Earth who shouldn’t will enable it.

The people whom for such exploits would be dangerous won’t be able to follow the 6 steps to enable them.

I want a locked down phone. So does every old person in my life. I'll literally pay extra for a locked-down phone. If you want to side load, buy a phone that allows it, don't force Apple to make one.

You, and the old people in your life, can simply stick to downloading from the official store. This change doesn't suddenly force you to live your life in a way that you're uncomfortable with.

If applications suddenly drop out of the App Store (horrendously unlikely) and force you to install them via sideloading, don't do it. It's entirely your prerogative.

Plus, I imagine Apple is going to make it quite involved to actually sideload anything. I think the old people in your life (incidentally, I know a lot more tech savvy older people than younger people, but that's neither here nor there) are safe from the nefarious clutches of added freedom.

This is still an objectively worse outcome for the person who doesn't want sideloading (fwiw, I agree). There is a non-zero chance they'll lose access to apps they like / need to keep in touch with friends if they stick to their principles and avoid all sideload-only apps.

  > I'll literally pay extra for a locked-down phone. 

would you prefer a mac or pc to be so as well?

if not, why just lockdown phones and not pcs?

These days? Sadly, yes. With good reason, I cannot by default trust any software from the web.

Depending on how exactly this is done, it might yet be safe: we can have multiple roots of trust, multi multiple app stores, etc.

I'm nostalgic for the bygone days when I didn't feel even slightly concerned about spyware because no bank cards were stored on my device and tech companies didn't phone home so routinely that the EU nations unified their existing legislation into GDPR in a vain attempt to try to get them to stop.

But I don't see those days returning short of a Butlerian Jihad against anything post-2002.

FWIW, I am a young person who's professionally employed in cybersecurity.

I also want a locked-down phone with no ability to sideload.

Can you explain how this will compromise your ability to lock down your phone? Not only do you still have complete control over which apps you install, those that are installed are still subject to the same sandbox.

If you want only Apple "approved" apps, well you can still do that and you lose nothing. You can't really complain about side load only apps that aren't Apple approved then, because that is exactly what you want. But keep in mind this is orthogonal to the "locked down" level of your phone.

> But I have zero power over the EU.

This is true for every powerful country that you are not a citizen of.

For example: EU citizens have zero power over US regulations forcing US companies to share data with them. Plenty of examples from other jurisdictions as well.

I don't think there is a way around this. A global market with these influences is still much better than fully isolated markets.

I am very confused. Is someone forcing you to deliberately side-load apps ? If nobody is forcing you to do this, why do you want to force others to only use the App store ?