Setapp Mobile To Close in February as Alternative iOS App Store Economics Prove Untenable (macrumors.com)
(Tuesday January 20, 2026 @05:40PM (msmash)
from the walled-garden-wins dept.)
- Reference: 0180622326
- News link: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/26/01/20/1855225/setapp-mobile-to-close-in-february-as-alternative-ios-app-store-economics-prove-untenable
- Source link: https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/15/setapp-mobile-eu-app-store-closing-next-month/
MacPaw, the Ukraine-based developer, has announced that Setapp Mobile -- its alternative iOS app store for European Union users that launched in open beta in September 2024 -- [1]will shut down on February 16, 2026 , citing "still-evolving and complex business terms" for alternative marketplaces that don't fit its current business model.
Alternative iOS stores became possible under the Digital Markets Act but face challenges including Apple's controversial Core Technology Fee, which Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has called "ruinous for any hopes of a competing store getting a foothold."
[1] https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/15/setapp-mobile-eu-app-store-closing-next-month/
Alternative iOS stores became possible under the Digital Markets Act but face challenges including Apple's controversial Core Technology Fee, which Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has called "ruinous for any hopes of a competing store getting a foothold."
[1] https://www.macrumors.com/2026/01/15/setapp-mobile-eu-app-store-closing-next-month/
By design. (Score:3)
> Alternative iOS stores became possible under the Digital Markets Act but face challenges including Apple's controversial Core Technology Fee, which Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has called "ruinous for any hopes of a competing store getting a foothold."
Yeah, of course. You didn't actually expect a multiply convicted monopolist to compete, did you?
Of course the terms are skewed so hard that nobody else can compete. This is by design. Apple wants to control the phone and everything on it. They always have, all the way back to when they wanted to only have web apps plus a few native apps by invitation only. And they're apparently not above wiping their backsides with the Digital Markets Act or the Sherman Act to achieve that; they've demonstrated this enough times that this outcome should be of no surprise to anyone.
If anyone expects Apple to behave itself, they're in for disappointment, as they have repeatedly shown themselves to maliciously comply with any court order that is not in their favor. The finance folks run the show and have for a while. It's why the flagrant antitrust violations have gone up. It's also probably why the quality of engineering has gone down so much.
Remember when Microsoft was forced to prop up Apple to keep from suffering more antitrust scrutiny? This is Apple's moment as the Microsoft side of that, and how Apple responds will likely determine Apple's fate.
As for myself, at this point, speaking as a shareholder, IMO, the best thing to do would be for the courts to force Apple to divest itself of the entire App Store ecosystem so that their leadership can't continue to shoot the company in the foot. Make Phil the CEO of App Stores, Inc. or whatever you want to call it, but separate it from Apple entirely, with a permanent injunction against Apple ever holding more than 5% of the new company and vice versa.
I respected Phil before, but I respect him a lot more now for trying to push Apple to do the right thing. And I respect Tim a lot less for not listening to him. And I respect Apple Legal even less for not jerking a knot in them.