But does the iOS app run directly on the iPad? (with a good user experience?)

It does not run on watchOS without extra work, correctly?

I think their position is kinda defensible here. Yeah maybe with iPad/iOS not so much, but for the other devices, definitely

That's a weird argument. Are Aldi supermarkets the same, "no the one on 5th avenue sells vegetables in isle 5 and the one on 3rd they are on isle 2". It's still really the same and particularly they advertise it to be the same.

I think there should be a hard rule, that if companies try to sell something as the same to consumers, they immediately loose if they try to argue they are separate things when it comes to regulations.

But all Aldi stores sell the same stuff more or less

> "no the one on 5th avenue sells vegetables in isle 5 and the one on 3rd they are on isle 2"

But that's not what's happening here

Is an iPad app the same thing as an iPhone app? Or a watch app?

If an iPhone app took minimal work to work on the iPad, then I'd say it's the same thing, sure

You can literally run iPhone apps on an iPad and have been able to since day one. You can also run some iPhone/iPad apps on a Mac if the developer allows it. Often the iPhone/iPad apps are the same binary and the same purchase gets you both versions, you just get a different UI depending on the device.

I don't think it matter what the developers do on the backend. If I buy XYZ app for iPhone, does that mean I also have XYZ app for iPad (if its available)? If so, they feel like the same store.

That's an implementation detail that the dev needs to worry about.

As a customer, I go to the store page on one of my devices, it says the app is compatible with my device x, y and z. I click the "Buy" button once. Then I get the app on all my devices. I get a receipt that shows I purchased one item.

But what Apple is saying is that I somehow used 3 independent stores?

Thanks, I was not so familiar with the behaviour of the app store for multiple devices like that

And yes, if you click buy once and get 3 different apps, then I'd say it's the same store

Counting iOS, iPadOS, and macOS app stores as different is going to be challenged by the EU for sure, since their own marketing touts the 'unified app store experience' of buying once across all platforms.