After Apple's U-turn: DOS emulator iDOS may return to the App Store after all

Apple's persistent and recently increasingly abstruse fight against emulators seems to have come to an end: The DOS emulator iDOS, which was recently rejected by Apple, can now be officially loaded onto iPhones and iPads from the App Store again. It took a long time for "common sense" to "get the upper hand" at the company after all, the iDOS developer announced. However, he remains "cautious" about the future of the platform.

iDOS in the App Store for many years – then kicked out

The DOS emulator can look back on an eventful history: the app has been available for iOS devices since 2010, but over the years the developer and the App Store reviewers have repeatedly clashed. Three years ago, Apple finally kicked iDOS out after the developer refused to remove basic functions such as file sharing. iDOS is based on DOSbox, older versions are available as source on GitHub.

In spring 2024, Apple surprisingly announced that it would allow the long-banned genre of retro game emulators onto the iPhone after all - probably not least to take the wind out of the sails of the first alternative app marketplace in the EU. The Game Boy emulator Delta, which was also sold there, immediately became a hit with several million downloads following App Store approval.

Emulators for iOS remain lame

However, Apple initially continued to deny PC emulators such as iDOS and UTM access to the App Store and therefore to the iPhone and iPad. In the meantime, Apple apparently did not even want to notarize UTM, meaning that the app would not have been able to run on iPhones in the EU outside the App Store. However, the company finally backed down. However, the emulation of new games consoles and operating systems remains a problem because Apple has so far only provided the just-in-time compilation required for acceleration for browsers.

(lbe)