Ever since iOS was first introduced in 2007, Many people all over the world criticized apple for locking the filesystem on iOS, even though they viewed this as being a totally bad thing, it has some benefits in addition to being a mere restriction.
Firstly: How it’s a bad thing
1- Enforcing Apple’s monopoly
Just as we saw in the apple vs epic games trial last year, apple’s filesystem locks give apple the complete control over the device, letting them enforce their own laws and guidelines which in a lot of cases benefits them over app developers.
A good example of this is the 30% cut from developers, which is not only unfair, but can also be disrespectful to developers.
2- Lack of customization
Due to iOS being locked down, it’s near impossible to really customize it without a jailbreak, which by itself is limited due to signing.
3- Limiting user choice
Unlike android, sideloading on apple devices is very limited and tedious, Apple says that sideloading is a security nightmare, and they are somehow right, but giving users the choice to install ipa files directly even if it throws warnings will be a welcome change, this issue was the main point of the epic games lawsuit, but even with this lawsuit, it doesn’t look like apple will allow sideloading anytime soon.
Second: How It’s a good thing
1- Security
Even though sideloading can be a dream come true for some, it’s unlikely it will ever be allowed anytime soon due to it being a security nightmare, apple allowing apps only from the app store is what gives iOS devices their reputation for being secure.
2- Ensuring app quality
Compared to the play store, the app store’s guidelines are much stricter, this ensures that all apps on the app store are safe and “high quality”.
3- Consistency across the ecosystem
iOS Is only for apple devices, and that’s very beneficial in a lot of ways, like iOS update adoption rates being off the charts compared to android.
There are other advantages to this too, like app optimization on iPads being out right superior to android tablets, which are in a lot of times just stretched phone apps, and also, high adoption rates mean that new APIs and iOS features can be implemented by developers a lot quicker.
And in conclusion , these are of course not all the reasons , but the reasons i found to but the most important.
