In the European Union, thanks to Apple’s compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA) of the region, Apple has had to open the door for other companies to offer services in its ecosystem. For the first time in its history, Apple is opening up (obliged) to the outside world.
As we mentioned, the third-party app store for iOS called AltStore PAL is now operational in the European Union and interestingly enough, the store requires an annual subscription of 1.50 euros (plus taxes) to cover Apple’s Core Technology Fee (CTF) for the installation of the app store itself. This is one of Apple’s tricks to continue profiting.
The installation of AltStore PAL requires clicking through a bunch of clauses and notices implemented by Apple that check your desire to install apps from outside the Apple App Store two or three times. But with persistence and enough clicks, it eventually gets installed.
A third-party store that comes with emulators for everyone
The new app market comes with two applications developed by Riley Testut: Delta, an emulator capable of playing NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS games; and Clip, a clipboard manager banned by Apple. The store is the work of Testut and his partner Shane Gill.
Delta is also launching today on the Apple App Store for everyone outside of Europe. It’s good news for everyone who got caught up in the iGBA debacle over the weekend.
AltStore PAL is integrating its marketplace with Patreon for monetization, and will support developers who want to distribute beta apps as a reward for crowdfunding, which is not allowed on the App Store. Delta is free to help offset the CTF, but downloading Clip requires a minimum monthly commitment of 1 euro (plus taxes) on Patreon.
Neither of the two applications is new, nor is the app store where they are launched. AltStore has been around since 2019 for iOS, but until now its installation required a solution that basically tricks the iPhone into thinking that you are the developer of the application through a complementary software called AltServer that runs on a Mac or PC. It’s a bit complicated, although technically it doesn’t involve jailbreaking the phone.
Now, thanks to DMA, Delta and Clip are officially launching in the EU PAL AltStore app market.
Both highlight the type of software that can be possible on the iPhone now that developers don’t always have to go through the Apple App Store to reach customers’ devices.
As a game emulator, Delta is in a legal gray area that Apple has just decided to support. Clip, on the other hand, needs to use several workarounds to run indefinitely in the background, and according to Testut, these workarounds “all go against the App Store rules”.
