Apple Giveth, Developers Taketh Away

Have you heard the news? Apple is removing the ability to side load legally obtained iOS apps on M1 Macs. One of my favorite things about the M1 Mac is the ability to use iOS apps on the device. Before getting cranked up, let me make an important distinction:

Downloading vs. sideloading

To download an app is to get it through approved download channels. Right now, the only approved channel for getting iOS apps onto the Mac is the App Store. Sideloading involves accessing the IPA file of your legally purchased iOS app and installing them from there. Apple does not have any authorized ways to surface these IPA files. You can get them via 3rd party apps such as iMazing.

Apple has always had a hat/hate relationship with sideloading apps. iPhone and iPad are completely locked down. To get unauthorized apps onto the device, you have to do something called jailbreaking. That involves bypassing security or exploiting a security hole. When Apple finds those security holes, they fix them. And that is the right thing to do.

Using IPA files on a Mac is materially different in that it exploits no security hole and does not endanger the Mac in any way. It is only a business measure and not a security measure. What is less clear is who, exactly does not want you to be able to use these apps on your Mac. That gets a little complicated. Let's see if we can figure it out:

Developers are not your friends

It bears repeating: Developers are not your friends. Sure, there are exceptions to almost every general rule. And I acknowledge the handful of good developers who put the customer first. But what you should remember is that every bad thing that happens on your computer that is done with intentionality was done by a developer.

There are no viruses without developers. There is no ransomware without developers. Exploits are exploited by developers. Ad-tech is written and executed by developers. All the spyware and tracking is brought to you by developers being exactly who they are. They are in this business because of what's in it for them, not you. That doesn't mean their work is not often beneficial to you. But benefiting you is usually a secondary effect. If they could make more money and inconvenience you as opposed to benefit you, most of them would do that.

If I were saying this about advertisers, it would not be remotely controversial. Advertisers don't care if you can access the content for which you clicked on a page. All they care about is whether or not their ad takeovers worked properly. To them, content is nothing more than an ad delivery system. Just refer to any ad-supported video. The audio and video will be choppy and damaged to the point of being unwatchable much of the time. But as long as the ads work, everyone except the consumer of the content is happy.

Another industry developers remind me of is the movie and music industry. You don't buy movies or music. You buy licenses. Want a vinyl record? Buy it. Cassette? Buy that, too. CD? Higher bit-rate CD? Download? Higher bit-rate download? Buy it again, and again, and again... Same with movies. Same with apps.

You bought an iPhone app? Good for you. Now, buy the iPad app. It doesn't matter that the iPhone app works on the iPad just fine. You should have to buy it again. That is what many developers argued when it came to running iPhone apps on the iPad. Now, that same app can be run on the Mac. Developers are doing the same thing. It is the same argument all over again.

Apple is focused on the end user

I am not saying that Apple is always the good guy. But they have a sales focus that is in line with my particular ethic: Your customer is the person who bought your product. And you only sell that product to one person so there is only ever a single loyalty. In reality, this is rather idealistic. Real life doesn't work out quite that way. But Apple comes closest to it.

Apple cares about customer satisfaction because they are clear about the end user being their customer. The one who advertises the product is a part of the process of making me their customer. But the advertiser is not Apple's concern. The carrier is not Apple's real customer. They are a sales partner. But the iPhone customer is the end user, not the sales channel.

If you buy a Microsoft product, you are not the customer. The corporation that purchases a thousand licenses at a time is their customer. The reason Windows works the way it does is because it serves their real customer. Microsoft also values their OEM relationships over you. Their policies are there to help their OEMs. You are pretty low on the list of priorities. Apple products fail when they forget who their real customers are. They succeed when they are hyper-focused on the end-user.

iPad apps on M1 Macs

Since the rollout of the M1 Macs, there has been a tension between users and developers. Users tried to download their favorite iPad apps. But they kept running into roadblocks. As it happens, most app developers don't want their apps to run on the Mac. Some speculated that developers were just interested in giving the user the best, possible experience. This is fantasy. There are many apps that run just fine on the Mac that developers actively blocked from being available to M1 users.

What developers want is for you to pay for the app again if you want to use it on a Mac, even if it is the same app with no modifications. They are also afraid you will prefer using the app on the Mac and cheat them out of ad revenue and other income and metrics they get from the iOS platform. That is what it is and all that it is. Stop creating fan fic about how developers are doing something beneficial for users. They are not. They are fighting migration of their apps to the Mac in the same way and for the same reasons they fought migration from the iPhone to the iPad.

Conclusion: Cat and mouse

I predict this will become the new game of cat and mouse where Apple restricts something that other developers will try to circumvent. I suspect there are contractual reasons why Apple has to try to appease developers and block apps from working on the Mac. But there will always be someone who wants to circumvent that limitation. I don't have high hopes that such efforts will be successful because most developers are in favor of the restrictions. Good luck getting developers to go against their own interests.

This might have gone down easier had developers made their apps available through the official channel. They are not working on Mac versions of their popular apps. They simply don't want you running their apps on a platform they didn't authorize. This is simply a measure to deprive. This is not about piracy, or preventing piracy. It is about power and greed. I have little patience for that.

Apple's M1 Macs are great. That hasn't changed. But developers are working as hard as they can to keep people from enjoying one of the best features of these machines for no clear reason. That will only bread more hostility. I had mostly good will for people who made iPad apps I enjoy. Those blocking their apps on the M1 now have a different relationship with me. I actively wish for them to fail so that new, more customer-focused developers rise up.

David Johnson