DMA pushes third‑party app stores in EU

The fight here is over app stores, browsers, and defaults — the quiet plumbing that decides what most phone users ever see. For years, Apple could say the App Store was the only safe front door on iPhone, and Safari was the browser most people would stick with because it came preloaded. The EU’s Digital Markets Act blew a hole in that setup. Now the effects are getting easier to see: EU iPhone users can install alternative app marketplaces, browser choice screens are moving real users, and Apple is openly arguing that the tradeoff is worse privacy and security. (developer.apple.com) ### What actually changed on iPhone? In the EU, Apple changed iOS so developers can distribute apps through alternative marketplaces, not just the App Store, and users get more control over defaults and uninstallable Apple apps. Apple’s own developer guidance lays out the new EU-only paths for alternative app distribution, while the Commission said it closed one Apple user-choice(developer.apple.com)rms for alternative app distribution. (developer.apple.com) ### Why does that matter so much? Because defaults are sticky. Most people do not shop around for browsers, app stores, or search engines once a phone is set up. The DMA is basically trying to move competition to the setup screen — the moment when users are most likely to make an active choice instead of accepting whatever the platform owner picked for them. Mozilla has been blun(developer.apple.com)havior fast. (blog.mozilla.org) ### Are people really switching? Yes — at least enough to prove the mechanism works. Mozilla says that after the first iOS DMA browser choice screens rolled out in March 2024, Firefox daily active users on iOS rose 99% in Germany and 111% in France. Those are big jumps, even if they started from a smaller base than Safari. The point is not that Safari vanished. The point is that once Apple had to present alternatives more fairly, a lot more people took one. (blog.mozilla.org) ### So where do third-party app stores fit in? They are the more radical part of the change. A browser choice screen still lives inside Apple’s operating system. An alternative marketplace challenges Apple’s control over how apps get onto the phone in the first place. That opens room for specialist stores, direct developer distribution, and different payment flows. But it also means(blog.mozilla.org)e EU. (developer.apple.com) ### Why is Apple so angry about it? Apple’s line is simple: more openings create more attack surface. Kyle Andeer, Apple’s chief compliance officer, called parts of the DMA “privacy-threatening” and “self-serving,” arguing that forced interoperability and alternative distribution expose users to fraud, scams, and malware in ways Apple cannot fully control. Apple has made the same(developer.apple.com)ive marketplaces, and outside payment systems. (macworld.com) ### Is Apple wrong? Not entirely — but that is not the whole story either. More openness can create more risk. That part is real. But the EU’s view is that Apple’s old model bundled security together with gatekeeper power, and that users and developers paid for that with fewer choices and higher dependence on Apple’s rules. Basically, Europe is saying security cannot be the automatic excuse for permanent platform lock-in. (digital-markets-act.ec.europa.eu) ### Why is this becoming visible now? Because policy fights are abstract until behavior changes. The DMA took effect earlier, but the story lands once you can point to actual user switching, actual marketplace openings, and an actual public backlash from Apple. That is where things stand now: the law is no longer just a threat hanging over gatekeepers. It is reshaping product design on live devices. (blog.mozilla.org) ### Bottom line? The EU is forcing Apple to compete in parts of the iPhone experience that used to be locked down by default. Users are getting more choice. Rivals are getting a real shot. And Apple is making clear that it thinks the price of that experiment is higher risk. (developer.apple.com)