Just a quick note, this is the same company that until ~2016 was saying of video games:
"If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song."
This is the same company that has more recently described Itch.io as offensive and indecent. This is the same company that has gone out of its way to basically block game streaming entirely from its platform. It's the same company holding back web apps/experiences.
So I get the security angle here, I really do, but forgive me if I'm suspicious whether security is the primary reason why Apple is locking down their store. On my side of things as a game developer, I think Apple is a large part of why gaming on mobile phones looks the way it does today. They made one model economically viable, and they aggressively chased off anyone who was treating games like a serious medium, and they still have those attitudes towards gaming as an art form today.
So for them to act like this is just a debate about malware is really disingenuous. It's also a debate about the cultural control that Apple exerts, and their ability to basically shut down and manipulate markets by deciding what software innovations, game genres, and content in general are allowed run on their phones.
A lot of us don't want Apple to have the control it has, not because we don't care about malware, but because we fundamentally don't trust Apple to be a responsible moderator/gatekeeper to the mobile market. The company has the criticism it has about moderation because they've burned a lot of bridges with developer communities over the years. If Apple really was just caring about privacy/security, this debate wouldn't be as fierce as it is. I actually really like the direction iOS is going on privacy. The problem is that on multiple other moderation fronts, their developer policies are anti-competitive or puritan/regressive.
"If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song."
This is the same company that has more recently described Itch.io as offensive and indecent. This is the same company that has gone out of its way to basically block game streaming entirely from its platform. It's the same company holding back web apps/experiences.
So I get the security angle here, I really do, but forgive me if I'm suspicious whether security is the primary reason why Apple is locking down their store. On my side of things as a game developer, I think Apple is a large part of why gaming on mobile phones looks the way it does today. They made one model economically viable, and they aggressively chased off anyone who was treating games like a serious medium, and they still have those attitudes towards gaming as an art form today.
So for them to act like this is just a debate about malware is really disingenuous. It's also a debate about the cultural control that Apple exerts, and their ability to basically shut down and manipulate markets by deciding what software innovations, game genres, and content in general are allowed run on their phones.
A lot of us don't want Apple to have the control it has, not because we don't care about malware, but because we fundamentally don't trust Apple to be a responsible moderator/gatekeeper to the mobile market. The company has the criticism it has about moderation because they've burned a lot of bridges with developer communities over the years. If Apple really was just caring about privacy/security, this debate wouldn't be as fierce as it is. I actually really like the direction iOS is going on privacy. The problem is that on multiple other moderation fronts, their developer policies are anti-competitive or puritan/regressive.