Consumers (myself included) already made their decision by choosing an iOS.
I don’t want every other game dev/streaming service pushing me to install their own “store” like they do on the other platforms. That’s why I keep choosing Apple.
Meanwhile, there's a total of 1 popular game and a bunch of "homebrew" style games very few care about that isn't on the Play Store. You're free to ignore apps not on the App store, but businesses are free to do what's best for them.
And I still don't understand the "I don't want to have multiple stores on my device". you probably have over 100 apps in your phone right now. And if you don 't you have dozens hidden under the surface for basic IOS functionality. is clicking into another store to install one more app a problem? App/Play stores don't even have all the bells and whistles Steam does (no forums, shit curation that spam companies SEO optimize for, no mod workshop, no community aspect, etc), so that's not an excuse.
When my wife chose iOS she didn't consent to Apple removing apps at the behest of Russian government, which Apple does. Apple altered the deal after the fact.
Apple should be absolutely prohibited from controlling what apps users want to run on their devices. If a user wants to install an app, and developer of said app wants it too, they should be able to do it without any restrictions. Or else Apple should start being honest and admit that they are only lending their devices to users, and not selling them, because selling implies full control over property.
Apple has put in place a pretty high barrier to entry for alternative marketplaces. It's not something a game developer is gonna be able to casually setup. Apple is requiring, among other things, having a bunch of processes in place for handling developer and customer support, as well as a €1 million standby letter of credit.
I wouldn't generalize too much. I think many people choose an iphone for many different reasons, and my guess is that your reason is probably not very common.
What other platforms? I've never been pushed to install another store on Android for example, so I highly doubt the situation would be much different on iOS.
because it provides no benefit to Apple while carrying significant risk:
- if users are happy with the alt store and it becomes highly successful, Apple loses revenue it would otherwise get from its own store
- if users are unhappy with the alt store because viruses, etc., get onto their phones, or it becomes a spam-ware cesspool, Apple gets the blame (the vast majority of users will not differentiate and then Apple has to spent tons of effort to "don't buy from stores X, Y and Z"--much easier to just disallow them)
Remember, most Apple users care about an optimum experience. If they care a lot about openness they would be using Android / Linux and are not Apple's target.
I don’t want every other game dev/streaming service pushing me to install their own “store” like they do on the other platforms. That’s why I keep choosing Apple.