I fully expect they will make it challenging and plastered with scary warnings.

I’m ok with that.

I’ve had iPhones for 15 years now. I’ve wanted side loading the entire time. It’ll be nice if I can do that without jailbreaking, but I won’t be holding my breath.

No no, they will say that apple does it the right way. Instead of downloading and installing a file like a peasant, you will do it through x-code, using your paid developer account only available on Apple hardware. And of course with massive limitations that apps from the app store don't have.

I'm only half joking, I really expect Apple to make it the most miserable experience, to them say "well, nobody is doing it!"

man i wish side-loading was real

Yeah, software is way easier to manage over borders than hardware - they already do that with their different App Stores. The comparison to USBC isn’t valid.

However, I wonder if it would be easy enough to trick your device into thinking it’s somewhere else. Recently had to download an app from the US App Store (I am Canadian) and all it took was creating a new account and declaring my country as USA. If it was that easy, I’m sure plenty of people would be happy enough making an alt Apple ID for side loading.

How about F-apple (read without the "-") ;)
Would be kinda funny though

Firefox isn't available for iPhone ?

Yes, we will. This was also specifically demanded by the EU and has to be implemented by March 6th 2024.

It’s being said that Google and Mozilla already have iOS-versions of Chrome and Firefox ready for this.

This is the last thing holding Google back from total domination of the web browser space. You know most people will just download Chrome when something doesn't work, since they already use it on their PC/Mac.

While I don't think that holding users hostage is the best thing to do, the reality is that enough people just don't care, and the iPhone and iPad's popularity forces web devs to make their sites work on Safari and not just Chrome. Once a real Chrome is available on iOS, all bets are off.

Is firefox on iOS a webkit wrapper? https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browsers/mobile/ios/

Time to switch to buying my upgrades when I visit family in Europe.

You're right on the money. They're trying to region lock it. Unlikely that US and possibly UK customers will get it.

We also found references to a region lock in this API, which suggests that Apple could restrict it to specific countries. This wouldn’t make sense for MDM solutions, but it does make sense for enabling sideloading in particular countries only when required by authorities – such as in the European Union.