I heard Snell’s verbal explanation of The Mac is the Model in Upgrade 539 (and again in 540) and couldn’t agree more with the idea that App Store plus a hands-off notarization is the way forward for iOS. Apple constructed an intentionally over-complicated cockamamie system to “comply” with the EU. It’s a mess. They’ve already abused their gatekeeping position and shown they can’t help themselves. They need to let go.

These things we call “phones” are actually just computers. They’re crazy good computers. So Apple, please just let them be computers. Let developers write apps and let anyone download them from the web. Most customers and the big apps1 will stay in the App Store because it’s easy and gives them peace of mind. This is not rocket science and regular people will figure it out.

I knew Steve Jobs said something to the effect of “people are smart”. Via Inc:

Technology is nothing. What’s important is that you have a faith in people, that they’re basically good and smart, and if you give them tools, they’ll do wonderful things with them.

Another:

When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there…

It seems like that’s how Apple got to the current Alternative Marketplace craziness. It continues:

…But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can oftentimes arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions. Most people just don’t put in the time or energy to get there. We believe that customers are smart, and want objects which are well thought through.

I genuinely feel they must be embarrassed by how the Mac works. Or they are too proud to make a system in 2024 that has the simplicity of the Mac’s model.

Apple’s arrogance in this case lead them to believe the complex solution was the correct one. Letting people just download apps from the web is simple. It’s better for customers. It’s worse for Apple because it cedes control and risks losing a bit of money while dousing developer goodwill with gasoline.

What I expect in 2025 are more countries doing their spin on the EU’s DMA and cutting straight to the punchline: require Mac-like app downloading on iOS. Done.

  1. There is the fear that Facebook would pull out of the store and effectively turn the apps to full-on spyware. Of course we need to remember their apps are already semi-spyware. The reality is they’d lose a ton of users who wouldn’t make the jump. Also: there is side-loading on Android and Facebook is still in the Play Store. ↩︎