• This year has seen the App Store marketplace become a battleground between Apple and developers/regulators.
• It has seen the Cupertino-based company forced to allow third-party payments in specific regions. 
• Now in an interesting move, Apple may allow third-party app stores on its devices, according to reports.

The Apple App Store continues to be a battleground where the Cupertino-based company has been squaring off against developers and regulators alike. It has resulted in decisions where Apple was forced to allow third-party payments in its marketplace in specific regions, which is why the latest report regarding the App Store is so puzzling.

This as Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple is preparing to allow downloading of applications from third-party app stores on its devices moving forward.

That said, this is not a strictly Apple-led decision, with it preemptively falling in line with the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which sets out guidelines for companies on charge of digital marketplaces to make them more open. The DMA is set to come into play in 2024, which of course leaves Apple and others a little over a year to sort things out.

“When a gatekeeper engages in practices, such as favoring their own services or preventing business users of their services from reaching consumers, this can prevent competition, leading to less innovation, lower quality and higher prices,” explains the EU regarding some of the do’s and don’ts of the DMA.

“When a gatekeeper engages in unfair practices, such as imposing unfair access conditions to their app store or preventing installation of applications from other sources, consumers are likely to pay more or are effectively deprived of the benefits that alternative services might have brought,” it adds.

As such, those with an app store or other digital marketplace will need to comply with the EU’s new regulations by 6th March 2024.

Back to Apple and this reported plan is not withouts its provisos, with the company said to be taking a strict approach to security standards for third-party app stores, as well as requiring some sort of verification for applications not found in the Apple App Store, which could also carry a fee of some kind.

At the time of writing, Apple is yet to officially comment on the matter, but we may only hear something tangible when the next WWDC developer meet-up happens next year.