“I think it will be a Europe-only feature,” Gurman said. “I think that they’re not going to shoot themselves in the foot and expand this globally if they don’t have to.”
“They’re not gonna do anything extraneous that would further hurt their grip on the App Store,” he continued. “They’re really going to stick to the letter of the law here.”
Gurman believes that Apple may charge developers to be part of the sideloading program, using a process based on configuration profiles. The company may also have a review process for these apps, even though they would be installed outside of the App Store.
Europe approved the Digital Markets Act rules in July 2022, and they entered into force in November. The rules will be applicable starting on May 2, 2023.
