Apple’s monopoly on the sale of iPhone apps is set to be further eroded according to a new tweet showing third-party app stores in the iOS 26.2 beta in Japan. This follows a ruling by Japan’s Fair Trade Commission in August that both Apple and Google must allow alternative app stores.
This will make Japan the 29th country to get third-party app stores for the iPhone, with others set to follow as courts and antitrust regulators continue to issue rulings …
Third-party app stores for the iPhone
Apple has faced antitrust pressure around the world thanks to its effective monopoly on the sale of iPhone apps. Edge cases aside, in most countries there is no way for a developer to sell an iPhone app to a user without paying Apple’s commission.
Regulators in several countries have declared that unlawful and required Apple to permit third-party app stores on the iPhone.
The most significant one was the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), which required Apple to permit third-party app stores in each of its 27 member nations. Brazil has followed suit, Australia is set to do so imminently, and other cases are pending around the world.
Apple continues to fight in each of these cases, even going so far as to call for the EU’s DMA to be repealed.
Third-party app store support in Japan
Japan is another country where Apple has faced pressure to permit third-party app stores, and screengrabs tweeted by developer Cizzuk now appear to show support for these in the iOS 26.2 beta.
The tweet reads:
iOS 26.2 Beta 1 now allows alternative app stores to be available in Japan too!!!!!! You can use AltStore PAL and Epic Games Store!
9to5Mac’s Take
I’ve been arguing for years that Apple would be better off skating to where the legislative puck is headed, getting ahead of the game instead of constantly running defence, and that it wouldn’t even lose much money by doing so. While there has been unreasonableness on both sides of the argument, it is painfully obvious that Apple cannot win this one.
The company, however, has just dug in deeper and deeper, even to the extent of a senior Apple exec lying under oath! It seems clear that Apple will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into permitting third-party app stores on a country-by-country basis.
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