#306  8th March 2024

About alternative app marketplaces in the European Union

If you leave the European Union, you can continue to open and use apps that you previously installed from alternative app marketplaces. Alternative app marketplaces can continue updating those apps for up to 30 days after you leave the European Union, and you can continue using alternative app marketplaces to manage previously installed apps. However, you must be in the European Union to install alternative app marketplaces and new apps from alternative app marketplaces.

I understand that Apple wants to restrict these massive new changes to EU countries. However, this restriction when traveling with a EU device, a EU Apple ID, as a EU citizen outside of the EU is absurd. Apple claims their main concern is security. But blocking app updates when I am traveling abroad for longer stretches is certainly not beneficial there.

Apple seems terrified that people outside of the EU might find ways to gain access to alternative app marketplaces.

Back when Apple introduced the iTunes Music Store, Apple understood they had to provide a great user experience and a fair deal to the publishers to make this work. On the end user side they were competing with the popular piracy tools. Apple also had to make the store conditions attractive to the music publishers, because without content, there is no store.

The iTunes Music Store wasn't the only attempt to solve the digital market. Both the users and the publishers had options. The iPod was certainly a factor, but the approach worked. When Apple introduced the App Store a few years later, it was based on the same successful model.

Today however, Apple seems to have forgotten that lesson. App Store user experience has been eroding. Paid ads have taken over the top slot in searches. Legit developers are frequently harassed for trivial matters, while scams and blatant rip-off apps often sneak past review. The 30% cut that was a good deal 15 years ago, now seems greedy. Developers have to pay even more for ad placement.

Rather than working on providing a great experience for the users and developers, Apple is treating the App Store as their feudal fiefdom and defending its profits tooth and nail with draconian measures. macOS users, developers and admins have been asking for new features and improvements in the App Store for years.

Apple has never provided update pricing for App Store apps but pushed developers to use in-App purchase and subscriptions instead. This started several years ago, but to this day, there is no way to deploy and manage App Store subscriptions or in-App purchases with an MDM.

We can agree that the DMA is not perfect and Epic is a deplorable paragon for change. Nevertheless, Apple is eagerly slipping into the role of the villain and tarnishing their image. I hope that at some point, the saner minds inside Apple will prevail and they will return to their roots: provide a great experience that users and developers willingly choose over the competition.

How to handle the Digital Markets Act with Apple Device Management

Jamf Pro, Jamf School, and Jamf Now allow you to manage and block these changes with a combination of new and updated commands and restrictions

iOS 17.4 won't remove Home Screen web apps in the EU after all

Apple is now walking back that decision and says it will “continue to offer the existing Home Screen web apps capability in the EU.”

Facing reality, whether it's about Apple or the EU, is a core requirement for good management

But that’s just not the reality of the situation and to understand what’s going on – to be able to make sound management decisions and form executive strategy – you need to understand what the EU is. More specifically, you need to understand the European Single Market. It is trivially obvious that the management at Apple, Google, and Microsoft have not done this work. Apple especially seems to be in denial about the nature of the EU.