Apple May Split App Store To Allow Sideloading On iPhones In Europe
Apple is reportedly planning to split its App Store into two. The move is to comply with the European Union requirements for the region. The EU has set March 7 as the deadline to comply.
iPhone maker Apple is reportedly planning to split its App Store into two in order to comply with the European Union requirements for the region.
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman Apple is planning to split the App Store in two to meet the Digital Markets Act (DMA) of the EU, allowing sideloading of apps on iPhone, something that the company has fiercely resisted so far.
UNSPLASH
Digital Markets Act deadline
The EU has set March 7 as the deadline to comply with the DMA.
Apple will roll out adjustments to the App Store? in the EU to comply with the legal requirements effectively splitting it from the rest of the world.
What Apple argued
As late as last week, Apple had tried to resist the move and CEO Tim Cook had met the European Union's competition boss, Margrethe Vestager, at Apple Park.
Vestager reportedly told Cook that Apple had a duty to let users install other app stores and download apps from anywhere under the DMA.
REUTERS
Apple had argued that the Commission¡¯s treatment of the App Stores on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, and Apple Watch as a single store is based on ¡°material factual errors,¡± as they all distribute apps for a specific platform and type of device.
More troubles for Apple
It is not just the App Store, the EU is also investigating whether iMessage should also be designated as a core platform service under the DMA, which could result in Apple being forced to make its messaging service interoperable with others.
It should be noted that the EU had forced Apple to make another significant change it had long resisted.
wired
EU forced Apple to use type-C ports
Apple was forced to ditch the lightning charger which was introduced in 2012 for iPhones in favour of the universal standard, type-C ports from the iPhone 15.
The EU had passed a law in 2022 requiring phones, tablets, and cameras sold in the region to come equipped with a USB-C port by the end of 2024.
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Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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