"Side loading" (what a terrible word for what should be the normal way of installing software) could be disabled by default, and behind an extra scary warning screen in the settings which explicitely warns the user about the consequences. At some age (maybe starting at 16 or so?), people should be allowed to make their own decisions without "helicopter companies" hovering above them all the time telling them what to do.
That's essentially how it is now with jailbreaking. Unfortunately, with iOS >14.4 or so, the SEP panics the phone and so the only way to side load is to disable SEP features like the passcode and Apple Pay. I can easily see this situation continuing even if an "Allow Side Loading" switch is provided— flip the switch and Apple gets to yank features to tilt the decision in their favor.
And all I even want to do is have a parametric equalizer so PowerBeats sound decent with Apple Music while I run…
The problem is that there isn't really a choice, because it's either the Apple- or the Google-ecosystem and both are "walled gardens" (at least Android still allows "side loading" though). The third choice is not owning a mobile phone at all but that's nearly impossible these days.
Most people don't know this thing when they go to buy the device, and of course nobody will tell you about that. If on the box there is written "THIS DEVICE WILL ONLY RUN SOFTWARE APPROVED BY APPLE", how many people would buy that? In reality most people don't know this thing.
They discover it later, when they ask some more expert friend "can you install me an app to do so, like the one you have on your phone", and you have to explain that no, you can't because Apple didn't approve it for the store. And then they understand that they made a bad choice, but it's too late.
Or when someone goes to you asking for an iOS app and you have to explain that putting it on the store (the only way they can install it permanently, even if they need it only on one phone) they will have to spend a lot of money. While with Android you just give them the .apk and you are done. And most of the time these customer will buy Android phones because it's cheaper to buy a new phone than get the app on the store.
>If on the box there is written "THIS DEVICE WILL ONLY RUN SOFTWARE APPROVED BY APPLE", how many people would buy that?
My toaster can't run any software at all.
Most people will care about their inability to run their own software on their iPhone about as much as they care about running it on their toaster, or car, or desk. Most people are not naturally hackers or tinkerers.
>Or when someone goes to you asking for an iOS app and
If someone is going to you asking for an app that you compiled yourself, let alone one that you programmed yourself, they're such a statistical anomaly it isn't funny.
It's not the same thing. Most people doesn't even know that a toaster run software. It's not a computer, at least as a primary function, it's an appliance, built for doing one thing. Same thing for all embedded devices. In that devices the software replaces things that once where done mechanically or in electronic with discrete logic.
> If someone is going to you asking for an app that you compiled yourself, let alone one that you programmed yourself, they're such a statistical anomaly it isn't funny.
Yes, that could be the case, but it's more common with apps like emulators of old console, that on iOS are not approved, or to listen to music from YouTube in background and without ads, or a file manager to copy stuff from/to a removable device, and so on.
There is also the case of people that asks me for apps for their business and I have to say, sorry for iOS I cannot do so because Apple forbids that. You would better buy a cheap 200$ phone/tablet only for that application, because getting it approved by Apple and putting it on the store will cost you more.
