I very much doubt making it really difficult to target the iPhone on anything other than a Mac has anything to do with the amount of shovelware on the Play Store.
This is false. The Developer ID program began in 2012. Before then, Mac software didn't need to be signed with an Apple certificate.
It may not have been called Developer ID back then, but you absolutely were required to pay $99 per year for as long as I can remember - well before 2012.
The perks included receiving a free copy of OSX - which was funny considering you still needed a Mac to work on.
You have no idea what you're talking about. I've been a professional Mac developer for 17 years, so I do know what I'm talking about.
The Apple Developer Program has existed for decades, and in fact it used to be way more expensive, i.e., $500 or $3500 depending on level: https://web.archive.org/web/20080513215048/http://developer....
However, membership in the Apple Developer Program wasn't required to distribute Mac software, because Xcode was included with Mac OS X, and Mac OS X did not require apps to be code signed. The code signing requirement started in 2012. You can see the membership benefits in the above Wayback Machine link.
> The perks included receiving a free copy of OSX - which was funny considering you still needed a Mac to work on.
You are right about that, but remember that Mac OS X used to be distributed on disc, and you had to go to the store and pay for it, so having a copy of the latest update mailed to you would have been very convenient.
You have always had to pay a fee for the privilege of thinking about writing code capable of running on an Apple device - in addition to always being required to compile code on a grossly overpriced Apple device.
So the entry fee to thinking about making an Apple "app" is at a minimum $1k+.
It's hilarious seeing Apple developer's not understand how absurd this all is. Nobody else does it this way, and Apple's users are worse off because of it.
No?
> You have always had to pay a fee for the privilege of thinking about writing code capable of running on an Apple device
Again, for the nth time, no.
The $99 Mac developer program began in 2010. https://developer.apple.com/news/index.php?id=03192010a Before then, it was $500/$3500, as my previous link shows. [EDIT:] Here's another article from 2010: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2010/03/apple-reconfigures-m...
On the Mac, Gatekeeper and Developer ID were introduced in 2012. Before then, Mac apps didn't need to be code signed. You could distribute Mac apps before 2012 without paying anything to Apple (other than the price of the Mac, of course, though technically you could compile on a non-Mac).
February 27, 2012 "Developer ID is a new way to help prevent users from installing malware on their Mac. Along with Gatekeeper, a new feature in OS X Mountain Lion, signing applications with your Developer ID certificate provides users with the confidence that your application is not known malware and has not been tampered with." https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=02272012a
One quick look at App Store vs. Play store will tell you differently.