Apple, specifically iOS and the App Store, lThey have been in the sights of regulators for some time, who are eyeing the closed ecosystem of Apple’s operating system for their devices with concern. Slowly but surely, we’re seeing investigations begin, sometimes at the request of other companies and other times by the regulators themselves, outlining the end of exclusivity and absolute control over what goes on in the App Store.

You will remember that at that time, GeForce NOW, Xbox Cloud, and Stadia all considered putting their apps on the App Store, so that users can access these services from iPhone. However, Apple has claimed the power to oversee the titles that will be available through the platform. Something that doesn’t seem to make any sense, since these games always run in the cloud, not on the device, so it’s not clear why Cupertino played this card.

As a result, the App Store was closed for apps to access these services, causing the three companies behind them, NVIDIA, Microsoft and Google, to step on the accelerator in designing web versions of the services for iOS users to access. Personally, I’ve never gotten it out of my head that re-playing Fortnite on iOS thanks to GeForce NOW and Xbox Cloud is a bit of a comeback from both techies.

Be that as it may, from what we can read in the press release, it appears that the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (ACM) wants Apple to open the doors of the App Store to cloud gaming. The regulator is conducting an investigation into mobile platforms, with Apple and Google in the spotlight, whether the conditions they impose on their operating systems act as a brake on free competition and, as a result, the evolution of related technologies.

The research covers both Android and iOS browsers, which accounted for 97% of all mobile browsing in the UK in 2021, according to research by ACM. In this regard, we must recall that for a web browser accepted in the App Store, Apple forces it to use the Safari engine, thereby vetoing development based on Chromium and other alternatives.