Apple will allow iPhone and iPad owners to remove one of the company's most valuable and prized assets – the iOS App Store – by the end of this year. The change will bring Apple into compliance with European Union digital markets law and create more competition in the mobile ecosystem, but only within the EU.
Other apps Apple allows users to delete include Messages, Photos, Camera, and Safari.
Currently, these apps cannot be removed from an iPhone or iPad.
“We will be making changes to the browser choice screen, default apps and app removal in iOS and iPadOS for EU users by the end of the year,” Apple quietly announced in a developer update. “These updates come from our ongoing dialogue with the European Commission about complying with Digital Markets Act requirements in these areas.”
Allowing users to remove the official App Store is a big step. The App Store is how Apple controls which apps appear on iPhones and iPads through its app submission guidelines, and it generates huge profits for Apple because apps downloaded through the App Store typically must use Apple-provided payment services for in-app purchases. Third-party app stores not only reduce Apple's control over customers, revenue, and the overall experience on phones and tablets, but they also create new concerns about privacy and security.
In addition to the App Store choice, Apple will create a new browser choice screen for people in the EU.
This also has huge economic implications: Google pays Apple $18-20 billion a year to be the default search engine on Apple's mobile devices.
Soon, Europeans will have 12 different browsers to choose from.
The list includes Google's well-known Chrome browser and Apple's Safari, but also includes lesser-known apps such as Opera, Microsoft's Edge, SuSea's You, Mozilla's Firefox, privacy-focused web search company Brave's DuckDuckGo and Maple Media Apps' “Browser.” Any browser that was installed more than 5,000 times in the last year across all EU App Store outlets is eligible to appear on the screen.
But the biggest news is that Apple has made it possible to remove the App Store, which is currently the only realistic way to get new apps onto your iPhone or iPad.
There are several emerging App Store challengers in various stages of development and usage, but none yet come close to the functionality or breadth of apps of the official App Store.
- Aptoid
- Ortho Store
- Mobivention
- Build Store
- Troll Store
- App Valley
The problem is that the way Apple has set up its third-party app stores under its Digital Markets Act compliance strategy means that developers who opt out of the traditional Apple App Store must pay a core technology fee for the privilege of running on iOS, which could easily cost an app hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“For each download on AltStore and Mobivention, developers will pay 50 eurocents, a fee that could quickly become unsustainable,” says the Verge's Callum Booth.
The reality is that the way Apple has structured its compliance program makes it nearly impossible to do profitable business via third-party app stores, and the EU is investigating this.
Europeans will be able to choose other apps in addition to their app store choice.
“In upcoming software updates, we will provide users with new default settings for dialing phone numbers, sending messages, text translation, navigation, password management, keyboard and call spam filters,” Apple said.