Tim Cook: here's when you should get an Android instead of the iPhone
Apple's iOS used to be known as the "walled garden" system, as it didn't allow anything out of the default interface and features on your iPhone. It has gradually been opening up its user-facing options, allowing things like third-party keyboards, browsers, and even widgets.
What hasn't been changing, however, is Apple's commitment to privacy and security, and Apple has been pretty successful in staying the course, barring unforeseen surprises like the Pegasus spyware that are out of its control.
For instance, Apple's chief executives have been warning for a while that installing unauthorized applications, the so-called "sideloading," is a security nightmare and that is why Apple hasn't allowed it on iPhones.
Speaking during the New York Times DealBook summit, Apple's CEO Tim Cook defended the measure by suggesting that you should buy an Android phone if you want to do it:
I think that people have that choice today, Andrew, if you want to sideload, you can buy an Android phone. That choice exists when you go into the carrier shop. If that is important to you, then you should buy an Android phone. From our point of view, it would be like if I were an automobile manufacturer telling [a customer] not to put airbags and seat belts in the car. He would never think about doing this in today's time. It's just too risky to do that. And so it would not be an iPhone if it didn't maximize security and privacy.
Long story short, there is a good reasoning about the blockade that iPhone users experience when it comes to unsanctioned app installation, and, even though they might have a perfectly good reason to want such apps, Apple is worried that letting them in will open the floodgates of security challenges that won't be easy to shut afterwards. What do you think?
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Things that are NOT allowed: