How does sideloading benefit end customer?
It takes away some degree of control from the company, and gives that control back to you.
To me, that by itself is pretty damn big. It is my device, I should be able to choose what I put on it.
In practice this means that you would now be able to install any app, from any source, made by anyone. Regardless of Apples own guidelines or rules in the app store. This opens a venue for the kind of applications you would not normally see on an iPhone.
Some of these include:
- Porn.
- Emulators.
- Game Streaming.
- Applications using their own payment systems without being beholden to the Apple Tax
- Development tools
- Non Safari browsers
- A whole ton of other things.
What are the risks?
The app Store verifies apps and makes sure they work as they should. It's not a perfect system but it does a decent job.
When you get an App from the app store you can be pretty damn confident that it'll work, perform well, won't contain anything to offensive, and is secure.
When you download an app from an outside source, you won't really have those guarantees. Obviously there will be apps and sources people trust, just like now if you download something on your Mac/PC, chances are you don't do that through a store. You got a website and download the app from there.
So you take on some risk. The app might be broken, buggy, it might perform like shit and look like shit, it might try to scam you or whatever else.
Why was this not allowed before?
Most likely because Apple as a company, likes to have as much control over their products as possible. Hence why people often refer to Apple ecosystem as a "Walled garden". Like things in there are great, but there are big walls around your garden that prevent bad things from coming, but they also prevent you from expanding and exploring.
If Apple can control the single source where Apps come from, it gives them more control over your device. Like in Apples eyes, a game streaming service should offer each game as an individual app. Not something you choose from the streaming service, so game streaming services were banned from App store. Since they don't follow how Apple wants that service to work on their devices.
Additionally security is bit of a concern since sideloaded apps are riskier than verified apps from the app store. Limiting that can make the device more secure. However ideally, the operating system should be secure enough, that you can't break the security from a sandboxed app.
Then there's money. Apple has a rule in the pap store that you're only allowed to use Apples own In App Purchase system. So if you want to buy something in an app, you have to go through Apple, and that means a 30% cut. However this a rules for the app store, since it's practically impossible to prevent an app from just asking your CC details or opening a paypal page. So if Apple detects this, they ban the app. This is the main reason Fortnite was banned.
Allowing sideloading means relinquishing control over that in app market. Since now a dude can install whatever they want and bypass Apples payment system entirely.
I mean they haven't added cellular to Macs thus far, I don't see why they would start after making their own chips.
They'd rather sell you an iPhone so you can tether that to your Mac.