Apple must open iPadOS to sideloading within 6 months, EU says

I'm genuinely surprised by this. I figured the differences between tablets and phones, combined with Apple's efforts to distinguish between 'iPadOS' and 'iOS', would be enough to get them a win on this point. If the shared app store is part of the problem I wonder if that makes it a liability for any new apple ecosystem to tie into the App Store, like Vision OS for example.

I mean it’s literally the same thing. That Apple got away with pretending iPadOS and iOS are somehow fundamentally different for this long is insane to me.