Sideloading constraints constrained
Apple’s reaction to the EU’s concerns about the App Store’s effects on the smartphone market is something I’d not paid close attention to, since the only device I own that was likely to be involved - an iPad Mini - is outdated enough to be a couple of OS releases out of date so unlikely to be affected by future OS changes.
This 9to5mac article reveals that I needn’t have bothered to pay even that much attention:
The ability to install third-party app marketplaces and download apps from third-party app marketplaces will be an option only on the iPhone.
The new prompt in Safari that asks users to pick a default browser is coming only to the iPhone.
Support for third-party browser engines is coming only to the iPhone.
The ability to set default NFC and wallet apps will only be available on the iPhone.
I don’t care very much about sideloading, but the continued inability to run alternative web browsers that actually use different rendering engines, or to set defaults for services to non-Apple options, does hurt a bit.
I’ll still replace my iPad Mini 4 with another iPad model1 when it eventually becomes unusable, because it’s been a terrific workhorse for me for quite a while now. It was worth what I paid for it, unquestionably. It’s just that Apple are choosing to defend their position by limiting iPadOS, and while I get that the numbers point in that direction that doesn’t make it less of a disappointment for other paying Apple customers.
The rationale for not rolling these changes out under iPadOS seems to be that the EU’s action was driven by concerns about the smartphone market. iPads are absolutely, definitively not smartphones: so why should tablets using basically the same operating system be affected by what the EU want for smartphones?I don’t care very much about sideloading, but the continued inability to run alternative web browsers that actually use different rendering engines or to set defaults for services to non-Apple options does hurt a bit. I’ll still replace my iPad Mini 4 with another iPad model2 when it eventually becomes unusable, because it’s been a terrific workhorse for me for quite a while now. It was worth what I paid for it, unquestionably. 3
Also (as I suspected all along) these various changes in response to the EU’s legislation are not going to apply in the UK
Another Brexit benefit that we should all be sure to remember next time we get to use a ballot box.
[Via jwz]
Very likely with whatever the latest variant of the iPad Mini is at that point in time. Depending mostly upon how much Apple screw around with the pricing and features mix relative to the other lowish-cost iPad models available at that time. I will look around and see what the non-Apple small tablet/phone-aimed-at-note-taking tablet options are, really I will, but it’ll take a lot for them to convince me not to go down the Apple route again.↩︎
Very likely with whatever the latest variant of the iPad Mini is at that point in time. Depending mostly upon how much Apple screw around with the pricing and features mix relative to the other lowish-cost iPad models available at that time. I will look around and see what the non-Apple small tablet/phone-aimed-at-note-taking tablet options are, really I will, but it’ll take a lot for them to convince me not to go down the Apple route again.↩︎
When iPad users rejoiced at the launch of iPadOS that at last Apple’s tablets would be able to differentiate themselves from their smaller more lightweight brethren, this was not what we had in mind.↩︎