Apple to allow outside app stores in overhaul spurred by EU laws
Honestly this is going to have 1 or 3 outcomes:1. Nothing is going to change and I will continue to use my phone as it was before because the App Store is still the primary driver.2. I will be forced to use third party stores because critical apps are no longer distributed through the App Store.3. I will just be using my phone less and less.The EU, Developers, and Many here continue to forget that the reason many of us use an iPhone is because of the walled garden. If I wanted an open platform I would switch to Android and mod the hell out of it.I don't want that. I want the precautions that Apple has in place to make it so developers can't employ dark patterns to keep me as a paying subscriber. To mine the data on my phone for their profit.With one or 2 clicks of a button I can cancel any subscription I want that I did through the App Store. I also get alerts when anything yearly is about to charge (from Apple) or when things are about to cost more than they used to. Instead of hoping that we just wouldn't see the alert like too many sites do.People keep saying that this is about choice, which frankly... is bull. This is about choice for the developer not the consumer. Most consumers don't care, but developers will jump ship to another App Store if they can start doing all of the negative practices that they are not allowed to do on the App Store. Especially if they are big enough, Seriously think that Facebook won't try to have their own App Store? Considering what they have gotten up to very recently.We already have enough developers purposefully trying to deceive users right before they get the prompt about allowing the app to track.Anyone... please tell me how this actually benefits ME as a consumer and not developers?Edit: Instead of replying to each one I am going to just post here.Many of you are saying Android does not have this issue. But unless I am mistaken Epic Games did exactly this?Also unless I am mistaken, many of the consumer protecting restrictions are not on android. Especially around subscriptions and billing issues. I know google is cracking down on it, but from what I understand it is not as universally in place.So developers don't have the incentives to move to another App Store on Android like they do on iOS (again benefiting developers while hurting me as a consumer)Edit: I am going to make one last point here. I spend a fair amount of money on App Store subscriptions.  (or buying apps but that is sadly not as popular anymore). I do this because I don't worry about singing up to try something, knowing that I can very easily cancel it. I don't even have to talk to the company.This leads me to signing up for apps that I would never have considered paying for if it was through a traditional website that would make me jump through who the hell knows what hoops to cancel.They complain about the 30% cut, but from me. It is you get 70% or I give my money to someone else.I cannot imagine I am the only one that does this.