Apple's App Store is no longer the sole source of iPadOS apps

Earlier this year, Apple found itself compelled to open up its ecosystem in the European Union. DMA singled out 6 major tech companies, including Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and TikTok’s owner ByteDance, as gatekeepers, mandating changes to how they operate within the EU. 

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For instance, this pushed Apple to permit third-party app stores on its iPhone, and the first ones, like AltStore PAL, have now become a reality. The App Store alternative that comes for iPhones with iOS 17.4 or a later version in the EU can be accessed by paying €1.50 plus tax per year. This annual subscription includes coverage for Apple’s Core Technology Fee (CTF), which is required for installing the third-party app marketplace itself. 

It also entails clicking through multiple warning messages from Apple, making sure you are really, really sure you want to install apps from outside the App Store. But if you keep at it and click enough times, you will eventually get it installed.

It remains to be seen if the third-party iPadOS app stores will follow a similar trajectory, but the European Commission obviously deems Apple an iPadOS gatekeeper and its app store enough of a monopoly to demand software sales from alternative channels.

According to Apple, "users in the EU can download iPadOS apps on the App Store and through alternative distribution." It also adds that "alternative browser engines can be used in iPadOS apps" just as it was allowed on the iPhone.

Developers taking parts in the Alternative Terms Addendum for Apps in the EU are informed that "iPadOS first annual installs will begin to accrue and the lower App Store commission rate will apply," but the big takeaway is that neither iOS nor iPadOS are now the walled gardens they used to be, at least for iPhone and iPad users on the Old Continent.