‘The App Store Era Must End’ ⇥ macworld.com

Jason Snell, Macworld:

A few years later, Apple began planning how to bring the Mac into the App Store universe. However, macOS was designed in a much earlier era and didn’t offer the level of lockdown that Apple built into iOS. Rather than attempting to lock down the Mac and make it more like iOS, the company wisely chose a different path.

Today’s macOS is a reflection of that decision, and it’s undeniably the right one – not just for the Mac but for every computing device we own.

A blistering but entirely fair analysis. If you are a developer or you are familiar with this history, I do not know that there is a new argument here. But to see them in a single document is compelling.

You may also disagree with Snell’s description of the MacOS model as “undeniably the right one” — maybe your preferred software model has zero permission or authorization prompts. I get that; I, too, am not always thrilled with the way third-party software works on MacOS. Alas, many of the permission dialogs are a patch for ineffective or nonexistent privacy regulations, so all we need to do is fix that. How hard can that be?

I worry the App Store model and the regulatory response has irreparably damaged Apple’s entire ethos. Not destroyed, but definitely damaged. Apple prides itself on making the entire widget: hardware, software, and services. No competitor has a similar model. It has gotten away with this through a combination of user trust, and not being nearly big enough for regulators to be concerned about. But the iPhone fundamentally upset both these qualities.

As Snell writes, the App Store gives users confidence in the software they are downloading and it means Apple has staggering control over all the platforms it used to call “post-P.C. devices”. I think that robs users’ trust. I, for one, am excited by the potential of the Vision Pro, but I know it will always be constrained because of the app model it shares with iOS devices.

Also, because the iPhone is so popular, it is understandable why regulators would want to be a democratic check on corporate power. Alas, their remedies could shake up Apple’s whole-widget ethos.

There are certainly plenty of people who believe Apple should be able to do with the iPhone what it wishes, and that — thanks to the power of the free market — people who do not like those changes will simply go buy something else. Perhaps. But perhaps, too, Apple’s influence over a billion users worldwide is something worth checking on. If Apple had responded more amenably to concerns raised over the past decade, maybe it would not find itself in this position today — but here we are.