Apple recently released iOS 17.2 beta that you can download and try out on compatible devices. But you might be wondering why I, of all people, am talking about this update because, of course, I don't own any compatible devices. I actually don't own any Apple devices and I know many of you don't either. But the reason that this new iOS update is kind of special to me is because I was reading through it and it looks like it's adding a new feature that might put the tiniest, tiniest little crack in the walled garden that is Apple's whole software infrastructure across all of their devices. And that is managed app distribution. So let's take a look at the developer page here for the managed app distribution beta, of course, right now it's just in 17.2 beta. And if we take a look at the overview, it says managed apps are featured downloadable apps that an enterprise educational or other institution provides to its employees or students. Your app provides a place for your organization to vend these managed apps. The managed app distribution framework verifies that someone initiated an app installation and it provides status and download progress. It can also launch the app once it's downloaded. And then we have this little illustration here with the phone that kind of looks like a template for an app store of some kind. And so all of this kind of looks like Apple is talking about some kind of alternative app store, you know, allowing you to have an app store other than the app store on iOS and iPad OS. And that's kind of how most other tech news places are covering this like, you know, this headline from 9 to 5 Mac that says, iOS 17.2 hints at Apple moving towards letting users side load apps from outside of the app store. Now, of course, if this update actually does allow for side loading, which I mean, I guess it does, I don't have an iPhone to download the update and try it out for myself, obviously. But if it actually does allow for side loading, you got to keep in mind that Apple isn't allowing this out of the kindness of their own hearts. Okay, you've got to remember the history with Apple for years now. They've been going on with this story about how side loading is this super dangerous thing that allows hackers to just take over your phone. There's this famous picture now of Apple's software chief with the caption, side loading is a cyber criminals best friend. And while it is true that side loading can be an attack vector for a hacker to get malware on your phone, it is by no means the cyber criminals best friend. I'm pretty sure that cyber criminals are better friends with social engineering, zero day vulnerabilities, and people who use the same password that got leaked in a data breach for every other account that they have on the internet. The real reason why Apple doesn't want people to side load apps is because the Apple tax has developers call it is very profitable. So in case you weren't aware, Apple takes a 30% cut from apps that you pay for. Okay, so like if you pay, it will call it a dollar for an average 99 cents, right? Apple's taken 30 cents out of that. And they also take that cut out of purchases that are made within apps. So like when you buy gems for those paid to win mobile games or whatever, Apple's taken a 30% cut of that. Now obviously 30% is a pretty huge chunk of change, but you know, the owner of the platform of any given platform really taking 30% is pretty much the industry standard Google does this in their app store. So does Samsung and other third-party mobile app stores in Microsoft also takes a 30% cut from games in the Xbox store. But on Android it's really easy for people to just side load apps. And so if a developer really, really wants to avoid paying 30% to Google, like if they're already a huge, you know, brand name and they don't necessarily need the SEO from the Google Play Store to help them get more downloads, then they'll just tell people to side load their app, you know, buy the app directly from them and then they don't have to pay any money to Google. And this is exactly what Epic Games did with Fortnite. A few years back, they started selling the V-Box, right? And that broke the rules for both Apple and Google App Store because I guess you can't have an in-game currency that you sell to people, you know, you could do gems and stuff, but I guess you can't do V-Box or some specific rule about them selling the V-Box, made them fall outside the terms of service. But anyway, Apple booted them from their app store, Google booted them from their app store, and of course, they went and sued them. But obviously Fortnite is still going strong, right? Lots of kids are still playing that on their phones because they know how to side load apps. But on iOS, it's been a whole lot harder to side load. You either have to create a developer account yourself, which is only free for a short trial and then it costs you $99 a year or you could use an enterprise developer certificate of the app you want to install, which I think cost them like the app developer $200 to be able to give that certificate out to people, not per certificate. Like I'm pretty sure at $300 then they just get the code, they can just give to anybody. But anyway, Apple can still revoke that developer account or that certificate at any time. So that's why I generally just say that side loading isn't possible on iOS. I mean, yes, it is technically possible, but Apple can just shut it down whenever they want. So, you know, you're probably wondering what is different this time with managed app distribution because can't Apple just revoke the certificates that are given out by managed app distribution as well? Well, yes, I'm sure that at the technical level, they have the capability to do that, but they might not have the legal authority to do this in certain cases. You see the real reason why I think this side loading update is coming out is that Apple and the rest of big tech are going to have to comply with the European Union's digital markets act by March of 2024. It's only four months away. Specifically, Apple is going to have to make sure that their app store complies with the do's and don'ts of gatekeepers if they want to keep selling in the European market. So that's what I think this update to potentially allow side loading is really about. As we saw with the latest iPhones now switching to using a USB C charging port, the EU is one of the only forces that can actually make Apple make based changes to their products. But just like the USB C change, I'm pretty sure that Apple is going to only be as compliant as they have to be and not make the product too based. And because this side loading thing is a software change and not a hardware change, I don't think that people outside of the EU are really going to be able to get trickle down benefits like we did with USB C. When Apple released iOS 16, they also apparently created a new system where they could restrict certain features on the phone depending on the user's location. And so what I suspect is going to happen is if you have a European model iPhone within the EU's borders, then that garden wall is going to be just a little bit shorter for you and you'll be able to side load some apps. But if you decide to go on holiday to the land of the free, your phone is going to be well the opposite of free. Now I've also seen some people speculating online whether or not they'll be able to use a VPN to make their phone think that it's in the EU so that they can have a bit more app store freedom. But I don't think that's going to work either. For one iOS is a really locked down proprietary operating system. So it's hard to verify what data does and doesn't go through a VPN in the first place. But also VPNs have no effect on GPS coordinates, which can and probably would be used to determine the region locking. But yeah, if you're an EU Chad, the more Libre iPhone is going to be coming to you soon, maybe someone is going to find a trick to getting that freedom on their phones and other regions as well. That'd be pretty cool. But don't hold your breath on it. 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