Do you guys still remember that Apple was severely sanctioned by the EU?
It is Apple that relied on its own App Store to maintain a monopoly for a long time, but was gang ganged by the EU's “Digital Market Act”.
Advertisement
As a last resort, Apple officially announced this year that EU users will be able to download apps from third-party app stores, and developers can also provide their own apps in third-party app stores.
Not long after Apple relented, a third-party Apple app store called AltStore PAL was recently launched online.
This is also Apple's first third-party app store. . .
Advertisement
Just two days after it went online, it released Delta, the Nintendo game emulator that has topped the App Store this time, and another clipboard manager, Clip.
But now there are many restrictions on using AltStore PAL. For example, users need to update to iOS 17.4, and it is only limited to the EU region.
However, as soon as AltStore PAL was launched, many people complained about it. Some say that there is no way to reinstall the app after uninstalling it, and some developers say that the whole process is too complicated, but most of them still complain that it requires a fee.
Yes, you read that right, this third-party app store charges a fee of 1.5 euros per year.
Anyway, because of these, AltStore PAL now has a lot of controversy in the EU. Although Shichao won't be able to use it for a while now, he still went to join in the fun and see what was going on.
Let’s talk about the apps first. At this stage, there are only the two mentioned above, but according to the official statement, more apps will appear if they are released in the future.
Because compared to the centralized management of the App Store, all applications on AltStore PAL are self-hosted.
What does it mean?
Distribution is simply understood as the developer delivering the App to users through AltStore PAL.
Before an app enters AltStore PAL, developers need to upload the app to Apple's notary service, which is equivalent to going through a security check to see if there is any malicious code or infringement of user privacy.
After passing the security check, developers will receive an Apple-certified “Alternative Distribution Package” (ADP) and upload it to their own server. ADP files are a special form of “processed” App, specially prepared for the next step of distribution in AltStore PAL.
However, before officially distributing the App, developers also need to create a JSON source file containing basic information about the application, such as application name, version, description, etc.
This “source” can be said to be the core of the AltStore PAL app store. Developers upload the “source” for users to download apps, and users also need to add a “source” to download apps.
So in the last step, developers need to upload the source files to AltStore PAL, a dedicated public website so that users can find it.
This is very similar to the decentralized form of the Hugging Face open source community, except that one distributes applications and the other distributes models and code.
In this way, developers have a higher degree of control over the application. They can decide what to upload and when to update it.
For users, they can download the source files by adding them to AltStore PAL.
So AltStore PAL actually doesn't look like an app store, but more like a sideloading tool that provides download paths for third-party apps, or a resource community that collects a wide variety of apps.
Especially for those applications that cannot be listed on the App Store for various reasons, they can find a home base here.
For example, an App called OldOS restored the appearance and functionality of iOS 4 back then, but it was banned by Apple's App Review Guidelines because it “looks very similar to an existing Apple product, interface, or application.”
In addition, it is free for developers to upload apps to AltStore PAL, and official coins are not charged. AltStore PAL also helps developers figure out how to make money.
It is to cooperate with a crowdfunding platform called Patreon, allowing members on Patreon to donate money to developers.
This is equivalent to developers providing apps to fans (subscribers), and they can even unlock different apps based on different Patreon membership levels. Fans pay for their love, and developers then produce some high-quality or exclusive apps based on demand, thus forming a virtuous cycle.
Anyway, according to the official statement, this business model has been verified by their team. The previous Delta relied on Patreon to support itself.
Moreover, the official will not take any of the money donated through Patreon, and developers will get whatever they have.
One thing to say, these official regulations of AltStore are indeed very friendly to developers.
However, Shichao also noticed that although the officials said that they did not care about developers asking for money, as a commercial organization, they still had to make ends meet.
So where does this money come from?
Of course it comes from the users.
As we mentioned at the beginning, AltStore PAL charges users 1.5 euros per year. The official explanation is that because Apple charges core technology fees, it can only pass this cost on to users.
The so-called core technology fee is a newly implemented fee item in the EU when Apple was sanctioned.
Whether it is an iOS App downloaded from the App Store or a third-party app store, if the number of installations exceeds 1 million, the developer will have to pay Apple 0.5 euros for each first installation of the App.
Niche applications are not affected so much, but for AltStore PAL itself, they already have millions of users. Now that it has become a “regular army” again, the number of installations will only increase.
Therefore, after a lot of calculations, AltStore officials believe that it costs 1.5 euros per year to manage users in order to maintain their basic operations.
Of course, if the user really doesn't want to pay the money, they can also use the old version of AltStore, but it will be more troublesome. Because it has certain system requirements and operation thresholds, ordinary users are too lazy to bother with it.
Therefore, it is entirely up to the user to decide whether the 1.5 Euro is worth it and whether to pay it or not. It is better to criticize Apple than criticize AltStore official.
But to be honest, regardless of the controversy, AltStore PAL, as the first Apple third-party app store to be officially launched, is still somewhat progressive.
Before this, there were actually many third-party app stores from Apple, such as AppValley, Cydia, etc., but they more or less bypassed Apple's rules and were not recognized.
AltStore PAL has broken the high wall that Apple has established for a long time. When this closed application ecosystem is gradually disintegrated, more novel ideas will be visible to everyone.
However, as far as I know, the liberalization of third parties will also bring about some negative operations.
For example, developers put emasculated versions of apps in the App Store. After you download the full version from a third party, a bunch of ads and bloated features appear.
There are also some scammers who can even bypass the App Store review, let alone third parties.
So when Apple lets go of third-party app stores, we can only say that there are pros and cons.