It’s not every day that Apple announces such massive changes to its software ecosystem. The next version of iOS will allow iPhone owners to taste a bunch of new features dictated by the EU.
That’s it, Apple is ready to comply with the rules of the Digital Markets Act (DMA). After struggling for months to try to avoid new European legislation, the company has just announced a tsunami of change in its mobile ecosystem. On the program, more competition from the App Store, the return of well-loved video game licenses and a bunch of new freedoms for iPhone and iPad users.
Massive changes on iPhone
As soon as iOS 17.4 is released in a few weeks, owners of Apple mobile devices (residing within the EU) will be able to start tasting the new features required by the DMA. And suffice to say that the list of changes is long, with Apple beginning one of the biggest revolutions in its ecosystem here.
- First and foremost, alternative app stores will now be allowed on iOS. No more need to go through the App Store to find the software of your dreams, you can, like on Android, shop on different stores to see if the grass (and the price) of certain apps is better elsewhere. Third-party stores will have the right to use an alternative payment system to avoid Apple’s commission. The company will still charge a toll of 50 cents (nicknamed Core Technology Fee) per installation if your software exceeds one million downloads in the EU.
- Taking advantage of the opportunity, Epic Games announced that Fortnite will return to iOS through the Epic Games Store. The latter should be installable on iPhone in the coming months. This did not prevent Tim Sweeney, the studio’s boss, from asserting that the fees imposed by Apple on downloading apps from third-party sources represent a “anti-competitive system full of abusive fees“.
- In the same vein, cloud gaming applications will also be welcome on the App Store from iOS 17.4. Services like GeForce Now or Xbox Cloud will be able to offer a native app rather than necessarily using a web browser. Enough to improve the cloud gaming experience on iOS, without a doubt.
- Finally, on the browser side precisely, Apple will authorize the development of a real competitor to Safari. Today, whether it’s Chrome, Firefox, Edge or others, they all use Apple’s browser rendering engine with a different lick of paint on the surface. Soon development teams will be able to use a real alternative engine, which could mean, for example, the arrival of extensions on a browser like Firefox.
Apple fumes, but obeys
In less flashy new features, Apple also announced a change in the amount of commission taken from App Store applications (going from 30% to 17% minimum), an opening of its system of NFC payment and the portability of its history on the App Store.
In order not to completely lose control over its ecosystem, Apple still has the right to scan installed apps to detect possible malware and will display a warning message in the event of installing apps via sources third parties.
Apple clearly does not do all this cheerfully. In the press release shared by the company, it is about “risks» posed by the DMA on 22 occasions and “threats” to privacy on 6 occasions. But whatever the company thinks, the machine is launched and the new features implemented by Apple are a huge victory for the European Commission and the DMA.
Source : Apple
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