For fifteen years, if you wanted an app on your phone, you went to one of two places: the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. Apple took a 30% cut. Google took a 30% cut. Developers played by their rules or they did not play at all. That era is ending — slowly, messily, but unmistakably.
Regulators Step In
The European Union's Digital Markets Act forced Apple to allow alternative app marketplaces on iPhones in Europe starting in early 2024. It is the first major crack in the wall that Apple has maintained around iOS since the App Store launched in 2008. In the US, a landmark antitrust case found Google's app store practices to be illegal, and courts are still working through the implications.
The result is a mobile software landscape that is more open than it has ever been — but also more fragmented and, in some ways, more risky for everyday users who are no longer guaranteed the same level of gatekeeping they were used to.
Alternative Marketplaces Are Growing
Amazon's App Store has quietly been gaining ground throughout 2025, particularly for Android users. Epic Games, after years of legal battles with Apple, has launched its own iOS marketplace in the EU. Several independent stores have emerged targeting specific niches — retro gaming, open-source software, and privacy-focused tools. The number of apps available outside the official stores has grown substantially, and that number is rising every month.
What This Means for App Developers
For developers, the opening of the market is a double-edged sword. On one hand, they now have options beyond Apple and Google, and the prospect of avoiding the 30% platform tax is genuinely exciting. On the other hand, reaching users across multiple stores requires more work, and discovery — already brutal on the main stores — is even harder on new ones with smaller user bases.
Small and independent developers tend to benefit the most. A game or utility that might never have been approved by Apple's reviewers now has a path to market. That is good for software diversity and good for users who want more unusual, experimental, or niche tools.
Should Regular Users Care?
Mostly, the changes are invisible. Your iPhone still works the same way in most countries. Your Android phone has always allowed sideloading with a settings toggle. But if you are in the EU, you now have real choices, and more regions are expected to follow with similar regulation in the coming years. The app store duopoly that shaped mobile software for a decade and a half is cracking open — and what replaces it will define the next chapter of how we get software on our phones.
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