Following the same feature on iOS, which has now been available for a few months, iPad users in the EU have something to be happy about next week.
Starting on September 16 (Monday), they will be able to use third-party app stores to download apps to their iPads. This most likely means the support for third-party app stores will be baked into iPadOS 18, since it’s going to be released on Monday. Additionally, iPadOS browser apps will be able to use alternative engines that are not Safari’s.
This was announced back in May and now it’s finally on the cusp of becoming reality.
This is good news but of course Apple isn’t doing it out of the kindness of its heart. This is a consequence of the EU adopting stricter regulations targeting Apple and other huge players like it. Apple was in effect forced to enact these new policies, otherwise it never would have given up its stranglehold on its mobile operating systems.
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