Following the same feature on iOS, which is now available iPad users in the EU will have something to be happy about for a few months next week.
Starting September 16 (Monday), they’ll be able to download apps to their iPads from third-party app stores. This likely means that support for third-party app stores will be built into iPadOS 18, as it released on mondayAdditionally, browser apps for iPadOS can use alternative engines that aren’t Safari’s.
This was announced in May and now it’s finally about to become a reality.
This is good news, but Apple is of course not doing this out of goodwill. This is a result of the EU adopting stricter regulations that target Apple and other big players like Apple. Apple was essentially forced to adopt these new policies, otherwise it would never have given up its stranglehold on its mobile operating systems.