Pro & Contra: Should iOS be as open as the Mac?
Apple is forced in the EU and other regions to increasingly open up the iPhone. Wouldn't it be better if iOS had the freedoms of macOS?
Apple is increasingly being compelled to open up its iOS platform – with alternative app stores, more compatibility with third-party products, and more. How sensible is such an opening, and should the iPhone operating system ideally be like macOS? We address this question in our Pro & Contra.
PRO
First in the EU, now similar in Japan: Governments are pushing Apple to open up iOS in some areas. However, instead of acting uniformly worldwide, the company is tinkering with different variants. Yet these openings make the system more attractive: Here in Germany, I can now select default apps for calls, messaging, and navigation, pay contactlessly via NFC with banking apps, or soon pair Bluetooth headsets as easily as AirPods.
The idea that more freedom automatically leads to security problems is a myth: Nothing serious has happened to us EU users since the introduction of the new features. And with macOS, Apple proves that even a freer system can be well protected. For example, by requiring confirmation for access to sensitive data. Similarly, Bluetooth bugs listening in on the iPhone won't be able to secretly pair with my iPhone.
The Pro & Contra is from Mac & i issue 1/2026, available from January 30, 2026. The new issue can be ordered from Thursday in the heise shop – as a print magazine or as a PDF.
Apple itself demonstrates that a closed system doesn't necessarily protect against malicious apps: they repeatedly allow obvious fake apps into their store. For example, "LassPass" was available for days and aimed to steal login credentials for the password manager "LastPass".
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Apple should finally stop making so many forced special concessions. An inherently open iOS also needs less regulation. Instead of primarily aligning the systems visually, I also want functional equality. Where is the Finder or the Terminal, for example? Even for the simplest shell scripts, I have to trust third-party apps – even though iOS is based on Unix. It doesn't have to be pre-installed. Root access and full file system access can remain impossible. In any case, I don't feel any less secure on the more open Mac. Apple has long since proven: freedom and security are not mutually exclusive. (wre)
CONTRA
The iPhone is not a Mac. From the very beginning, Apple has taken care to make iOS a platform that is both secure and easy to use. This means, for example, that I don't have command-line access on the iPhone and no app is allowed to tamper with the file system. The result: Major attack waves, like those that repeatedly occur on Android, have been avoided on the iPhone. Intelligence agencies and regimes that want to spy on iOS users specifically have to spend hundreds of thousands to millions of euros to buy so-called zero-day vulnerabilities. There are reasons for this.
When the European Commission now comes along and forces Apple with a legal sledgehammer to open up hard-to-secure doors for third parties into the system, it's unfortunate. Apple is apparently making every effort not to endanger users with the implementation. In certain areas, this is problematic in my opinion. One example: Wearables from other manufacturers needing access to notifications sounds good at first. However, my trust in third-party providers like Meta, who make their money from advertising and not from hardware, to not cause trouble is limited. Apple, on the other hand, has a reputation to lose when it comes to data protection.
I can understand that they don't even bring features like iPhone mirroring or the recording of visited locations in Apple Maps to the EU in the first place, because regulation threatens here. A forced opening of device mirroring would give other companies far-reaching access to the iPhone, and the history of visited locations would again be a feast for data harvesters. In an ideal world, the iPhone would be as open as the Mac. But we don't live in one. And why do I buy an expensive iPhone if I'm no longer as secure and private with it as Apple promises? (bsc)
Who is right? Discuss with us!
Last time on Pro & Contra: Is Apple right to forgo the MacBook power adapter?Â
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(wre)
